There really is no need for Northern Ireland to be spelt out in the intro like that. There is being PC and then there is making the article look ridiculous. People in Northern Ireland understand that Ireland includes them for the sake of describing the geography of the language, the same way as people in the Republic understand that they speak a derivation of British English, where British refers to the Isles. I am changing it back to simply Ireland, (which links to the island) as this should not be a politically loaded article  