Imagine all the native speakers living abroad and all the learners being grantaided to come and live in Gaeltacht areas and to actually increase numbers in the Gaeltachts.Hebrew is today the language of ISRAEL but at the beginning all these people who came back to their homeland spoke yiddish.I know it's only a dream but I want to spend my life increasing the number of irish speakers after reading reg hindleys depressing book stating only 10,000 native speakers exist.

Last year, there were letters published in Irish (and English, I think) in Irish-American publications from an state-funded organization offering assistance to Irish-speakers willing to resettle in the Conamara Gaeltacht.

A fair number of native English-speakers are settling in the Gaeltacht and using Irish, sometimes as their primary language. I know people who have done it. I saw a figure for this group that was much higher than I expected it to be. With the improving economy there this may become a more attractive option to people. Of course, there are larger numbers of speakers of English (and even other languages) that do not respect the communities they are moving into.

A Sheosamh,

Nuair a pillim abhaile go hÉirinn tar éis bhlian a chaitheamh thar lear beidh mé i mo chonaí i nGaeltacht éigin(Corca Dhuibhne nó Conamara)mar nílim ro-shásta bheith i mo chonaí i ngalltacht.Nuair a bhíonn tú sa Ghaeltacht tá meon na hÉireannaigh agat agus is fíorghael thú.Tá mise tuirseach traochta bheith i mo chonaí in áit le fuath do mo theanga.Freisin beidh mé ag aistriú m'ainm béarla go dtí m'fhíorainm gaelach.
Liam

I do not believe settling Gaelic speakers from around the world in the Gaeltacht would be a good idea.
Gaelic culture and tradition as well as the Gaelic language are maintained in these areas.
Settling foreigners in the Gaeltacht would only undermine these further.
Americans, whatever thier ancestry are a foreign people in Ireland.

The Gaeltacht cannot be preserved as a kind of folk museum. I know an Irish-speaking American who settled in Conamara, married a local woman whose native language is Irish, works as an Irish-language writer and speaks Irish with his native Conamara daughters. He has acculturated into the local community and his children are as much a part of the Gaeltacht as anyone.

If the your idea is zero break in cultural continuity, then he is undermining the situation. But it is unreasonable to expect that. Only a few isolated areas in the world are that ethnically pure and it would be unrealistic, immoral and undesirable to attempt such ethnic purity.

The Gaeltacht has never been impervious to people from outside it. I have known several members of a Carna family, one of whom is named Seán Lúc. That is a family name passed down over some generations from an ancestor from France whose name was Jean-Luc. Researching my family name, the only two people I could find with my surname, McCloskey, who died during the Famine were a husband and wife, where the wife was from French. They lived in what was then Gaeltacht. The language and tradition can only be maintained by coming to terms with the modern world.

Agus maith thú, a Liam. Go soirbhí Dia thú.

I agree with Seosamh, so long as they speak irish, it really doesn't matter squat where they're from.Anyway James, I think the idea was to attract back native speakers who had emigrated from ireland back to the gaeltacht, not to settle irish-american learners there.Not that I'd hold that against them.They're often more determined to speak irish than the average native!
To add to what Seosamh mentioned, one of the best known irish language female poets of the late twentieth century, was a native speaker called Caitlín Maude, who's surname derives from the period of the Cromwellian settlements.

Agus mo cheol thú a Liam, bail ó Dhia ar do bheart!

Aontaím leat, a Laighnigh. Níl dream ar bith ag obair le Meireacánaigh a thabhairt isteach sa Ghaeltacht ;-) agus ní bhfaigheadh siad ach corrdhuine anseo pé scéal é. Cé gur dócha go gcuideodh an t-eagras sin le duine ar bith le Gaeilge a lonnú síos i gConamara.

I ndiaidh do mo chara cur faoi sa Ghaeltacht, cheannaigh bean Sasanach an teach in aice leisean agus a bhean chéile. Dhiúltaigh sí oiread is focal Gaeilge a fhoghlaim. D'éiligh sí Béarla ó chuile dhuine. Mar fhreagra ar sin, dhiúltaigh mo chairde focal Béarla a rá léi go dtí gur thosaigh sí faoi bheagán Gaeilge a fhoghlaim, rud a rinne sí tar éis tamaill. S'iad na daoine ba chóir dúinn 'bheith buartha fúthu -- daoine a chuireas fúthu sa Ghaeltacht gan Ghaeilge ná suim inti nó meas uirthi.