Gerry Adams and Irish Gaelic

I've just been watching (on BBC News24) Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, speaking in front of 10 Downing Street where he has just arrived (along with Martin McGuiness) for talks with the Prime Minister. He began his remarks in a language other than English which I assume will have been Irish Gaelic. I do not speak either Irish or Scots Gaelic, but I have heard fluent speakers using those languages many times before. Listening to Gerry Adams speaking Irish Gaelic reminded me of hearing/seeing the late Edward Heath speaking in French - not done particluarly well, although one is surprised it is done at all. At least Edward Heath, when he chose to attempt his very precise (and grammatically accurate) French he was doing so before a largely French-speaking audience. Gerry Adams, on the other hand, was merely 'granstanding' in front of the media whilst attempting his precise and, one imagines, equally grammatically accurate Irish Gaelic - nothing new there, then.