"== Please clarify ==

""According to the 2006 census, there are 31,153 people in Galway city who say they speak Irish....There are 1,500 Irish speakers in the city area.""
What does this mean? If there are 1,500 Irish speakers does that mean there are nigh on 30,000 people lying about their ability to speak Irish? I assume ""Irish speakers"" is supposed to mean ""as a first language"", but that is in no way explicit. _uk "