Several years ago I came across a book titled "Gaelic" and it was of the Scotish dialect...
Then more recently I started coming across Irish alot more. I do not speak either but they do look VERY similar to me with a few obvious differences.
However, a doctor my father works with is from Andersonstown and speaks Irish fluently. He was telling me when i mentioned the above that they are completely different and you wouldnt be able to understand scotish if you only spoke irish.

So i was just curious what some of your opinions might be on this.

Cheers,
Ryan

The Gaels occupied Scotland (coming from Ireland).
So the Gaelic language is spoken in both Ireland and Scotland. However, they have developed apart.
I can read Scots Gaelic (with difficulty) but I probably wouldn't understand a fluent speaker of Scots Gaelic unless he/she took the trouble to speak slowly. I suppose the relationship is something like French and Spanish - a common root, but several centuries of separate development.

If you were only accustomed to Munster Irish, you'd have great difficulty in understanding Scots Gaelic, but if you had strong Ulster Irish it would be easier, as the grammar and some of the Ulster dialect variations mean that Ulster Irish is a lot closer to Scots Gaelic than Munster Irish is.

I speak Ulster Irish and can make out a good deal of Scots Gaelic when it's written down and when the similarities are pointed out to me, I wonder how come I didn't understand the Scots more easily. I have to strain hard to make out more than a few words or phrases in spoken Scots Gaelic, though.