I hope the OP knows something of the large scale history of English / Irish relations over the last century or two.
Simplifying mightily the Irish have been resisting English imperialism and defining themselves as not-English for a long time. And they have a separate country. That country is dedicated to being not-English and not-UK.
Hawaii is a US state. Like all US states, English the national language. Are some few local native ethnic Hawaiians upset about that? Sure. But they get zero official support whereas Ireland gives major official support.
The USA wants to have exactly one one language spoken and used by everyone: English. I’m not going to defend that decision, but I will say it is the decision.
That’s really about it.
A mild suggestion to our OP meant in the friendliest and welcoming of tones. I'm nobody in any position of authority or respect, just one of many old heads here in our perpetual kaffeeklatsch.
Unlike other social media, you notice we mostly communicate in posts of multiple paragraphs. One-liner responses simply indicate to us that you’re not thinking, you’re just reacting. This also is not a real time medium. Give things time to percolate. Formulate a coherent response to the last several posts over the last half hour.
Your ideas and topics can be interesting. And if you’ve got more than a one-track mind we’d enjoy your company as long as you’re willing to spend time with us. You have yet in any post to put forward a coherent statement of what you’d like to see happen, or why. Or how. Just ill-researched complaints and one-liners. So throw us a bone and tell us what you think and why you think it. Show your work. Not just toss out what you read someplace else. Cites to factual info are great. Vague comments that somebody somewhere said something silly on the internet are less useful and less persuasive.
I mean this in the spirit of helpfulness. Although in our board culture me going even this far is frowned upon and I may attract censure for having done so.
That may have been true when Hawaii was still a territory. Since statehood, Hawaii is a sovereign entity in charge of its own language and education policies. Sovereign is not the same as independent; it just means the government has rights and authorities that can’t be unilaterally taken away by another level of government. The state of Hawaii could, for instance, declare Hawaiian a co-official language and mandate public signs be posted in English and Hawaiian (or even Hawaiian alone) and mandate all public school students study Hawaiian. If the federal government didn’t like it there isn’t much it could do beyond withholding federal funds. That the state has not taken those steps is because the non-native majority is not in favor of them. Native Hawaiians are literally a minority in their own home and their concerns are not much taken to heart by the majority.
Some Native American tribes have seen some success in revitalizing their languages. Federally recognized tribes are also sovereign (again not the same as independent). They typically have their own publicly funded schools and the capacity to set their own educational standards free of state and federal control. Native Hawaiians don’t have the same authority. They are not federally recognized as a sovereign entity so when it comes to educating their children they have to take what the state offers (the whole state having only one public school district) or send their children to private schools. This is one of the concerns that prompts support for federal recognition of native Hawaiians as a sovereign group analagous to the recognition of Indian tribes.
Luckily there is a good private school for native Hawaiians, the Kamehameha School funded by the estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop, a member of the former royal family. There students are expected to extensively study the Hawaiian language and native Hawaiian culture.
Everything you say is true, and I am finding it hard to articulate what I want to say. Mostly, that state sovereignty is a power the states retain on paper, but barring the bureaucratic sorting-out of who does what, it doesn’t seem to have any de jure effect. The states don’t row in a direction the big boat isn’t already going.
There’s a photo of the Lahaina fire that’s widely labeled as Wailoa Church, but the triangular roof shown burning is an adjacent parish hall that was the home of a Hawaiian language immersion kindergarten.
Population is a big factor. The Republic of Ireland has 5 million people. Hawaii is less than 1.5 million.
As well, RoI has some ~75% ~= 3.7m people of mostly Irish descent whereas Hawaii has ~10% ~= 150,000 ethnic mostly Hawaiians. So ethnic natives (who presumably would be more interested in cultural and linguistic preservation than others) are a much larger fraction in Ireland and are also a much larger absolute number.