Top products from r/gaeilge

Ok. So here is a copy of my post from /r/languagelearning. Perhaps others can comment on how good the actual resources are. I haven't used many of them, except the grammar books.

Gaeilge!

So, this post is probably going to be long. Just bear with me.

If you want web resources, there's a few good things floating about out there. First is [Erin's Web] (http://www.erinsweb.com/gae_index.html). She offers lessons, which seem to be decent. I haven't used them, because I have the good fortune to have classes, but perusing them doesn't lead to any glaring errors. I would suggest you start there, as it also has the approximate English pronunciation equivalents.

If you want books, there's a few that could be helpful. [Briathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=795) and [Leabhar Mór Bhriathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6407961-leabhar-m-r-bhriathra-na-gaeilge) are excellent books for verbs. The first smaller, and has a smaller index, and is easy to carry around and study. The second is huge (Literally titled "Big Book of Irish Verbs"). It contains 112 sample conjugations, as well as a history of the language. On top of that, the index is near inexhaustible, contain over 3,000 verbs, along with their verbal noun, verbal adjective, and a reference to which one they are conjugated similar to.

For general grammar, you have several options. The one my school recommends is [Irish Grammar Book] (http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Grammar-Book-Nollaig-MacCongail/dp/1902420497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504088&sr=8-1&keywords=irish+grammar+book) by Nollaig Mac Congáil. It's a good overview of the grammar. However, I would suggest the series of [Basic Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/041541041X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504147&sr=8-1&keywords=basic+irish) and [Intermediate Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/0415410428/ref=pd_sim_b_4) both by Nancy Stenson. They're part of Routledge's series (Essential Grammar, Comprehensive Grammar, etc.), and I really like how that series, as a whole, is laid out.

For nouns, there's [Irish Nouns: A Reference Guide] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Nouns-Reference-Oxford-Linguistics/dp/0199213755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504256&sr=8-1). This books is immense, and awesome. It contains a shit ton of nouns. And also a lot of verbal nouns as well as describing how to decline them and when to decline them. It's an amazing book. I wish I had a physical copy.

For courses, there's the simple [Teach Yourself Complete Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Complete-Irish-Audio/dp/0071758984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504328&sr=8-1&keywords=teach+yourself+irish) and [Colloquial Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Irish-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415381304/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363504346&sr=1-1&keywords=colloquial+irish), however one that's used a lot in Ireland is [Búntus Cainte] (http://www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cainte-Ceim-hAon-Edition/dp/1857910656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504385&sr=8-1&keywords=buntus+cainte). There are three levels of it, if I'm not mistaken. There's also [Gaeilge Gan Stró] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaeilge-Gan-Stro-Beginners-Multimedia/dp/0956361447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504420&sr=8-1). I haven't used it, but supposedly it's good.

There's also immersion courses, if you have the time and money. One is offered by [Oideas Gael] (http://www.oideas-gael.com/en/), in Donegal. [Another] (http://www.nuigalway.ie/acadamh/cursai/dianchursai_gaeilge/neachtrannaigh_irish.html) is offered in the town called Carraroe, by NUIG. It's the one I've done, and I prefer that dialect.

Which reminds me. That's another thing you're going to need to know: there are three main dialects, one for each province minus Leinster, and the standard official. A brief glance at the [Wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language) page will help explain some of the differences.

If you want to practice speaking, there's a Facebook group called [GaelSkype] (http://www.facebook.com/groups/GaelSkype/) which does Skype sessions. Don't worry; you don't have to show your face if you don't want to.

I forgot dictionaries! [Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Gaeilge-Bearla-Irish-English-Dictionary-ODonaill/dp/1857910370/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505112&sr=8-9&keywords=irish+dictionary) is one of the most respected dictionaries out there, and most comprehensive. However, it only goes Irish -> English. [Foclóir Póca] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Poca-English-Dictionary-Gaeilge/dp/0828817081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505172&sr=8-1&keywords=focloir+p%C3%B3ca) is a smaller one (pocket dictionary), which goes both ways. Very useful! Then there's a few websites that help. [Irish Dictionary] (http://www.irishdictionary.ie/home) is a good one, though it can get really, really annoying at times. The same can be said about [Focal] (http://focal.ie/Home.aspx). It's more official, but is really only good for technical terms (like Libertarian, something I looked up the other day.). Google Translate can be helpful, if searching for one word, but I'd check around other places first. [An Focloír Beag] (http://193.1.97.44/focloir/) is a nice one as well, but it's solely in Irish. However, it will conjugate verbs for you, and can find the root based on any conjugation. There's also an [English-Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/English-Irish-Dictionary-Terminological-Additions-Corrections/dp/1857910354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368104543&sr=8-1&keywords=english-irish+dictionary) dictionary that is the equivalent of Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla.

Whew! I think that should keep you covered. PM me if you have any more questions.

PS: [This] (http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7577625/Irish_Gaelic_(Gaeilge) is an amazing torrent, if you're into that stuff. I personally like physical copies of books.

First of all, I'm thrilled that you're committed to continue learning Gaeilge! Like you, I picked mine up from the library also. I've actually had fairly good luck with libraries being willing to do an inter-library loan for materials not in their own system, so even if your local library doesn't have these discs for example, they may be able to acquire them from an affiliated library.


A quick note on the Pimsleur program. One thing you may have encountered is that Irish has a number of unique dialects which are not always mutually intelligible. If I recall correctly, the Pimsleur course exposes you to the Munster dialect (think, Cork for example). As a result, you'll learn Conas tánn tú? for "How are you?" as opposed to Cad é mar atá tú?, Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?, or Conas atá tú?. Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish' uses a dialect spoken in and around Connemara, for example, so you'll want to check beforehand if it makes a difference to you.


Now, personally I quite enjoy Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish', but I'm hesitant to recommend it as a beginner's book. Routledge puts out the 'Colloquial Irish' CD/Book set focusing on the same dialect, but it's supposed to be a bit more accessible.


Have you seen any of the Living Language courses before? They recently updated their 'Living Language Irish' course. While I've heard good things about this one as an introductory course, I haven't used it, and thus cannot vouch for this one. At ~$35 though, the price certainly seems right. 'Teach Yourself Irish' is an old standby for a lot of folks too, but it might not be what you're looking for if you're primarily interested in speaking.


On the side, I suggest watching programming online via TG4's site. They have a good selection of shows across a wide variety of genres. Ros na Rún is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine...


I haven't tried Rosetta Stone's Irish offering yet, primarily because it's still prohibitively expensive (at least for my tastes), but that's always an option as well. Is it the best? I cannot say, perhaps someone else here has tried it though and could offer their opinion.


Hopefully this helps somewhat. I've found the most frustrating aspect of trying to learn Irish to be the dearth of other students of the language, or even native speakers, near me. The Gaeilge subreddit is a help of course, and there are plenty of Gaeilgeoirí on the net these days, so hopefully if you stick with it you'll be able to eventually arrange some further speaking practice opportunities.


Go n-éirí an bóthar leat!

Yes! Bonfires figure prominently in many Irish calendrical observances, though particularly with the midsummer fires of St John's Eve (the centrality of fire-customs being well-illustrated by the Irish nomenclature: Oiche an teine chnáimh or Teine Féil' Eóin). A fine resource on the subject would be Kevin Danaher's The Year in Ireland, which features an extensive chapter on Midsummer, from which I can briefly excerpt:

>The midsummer ceremonies were almost all connected with the Midsummer fire, and in the greater part of Ireland were observed on 23 June, the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist.

>It is clear that a distinction can be made between two fire traditions. On the one hand a large communal fire lit by the inhabitants of the whole townland or village, or of several townlands or even of the whole parish. Such communal fires were lit, in the past, in places in every county in Ireland.

>On the other hand there were small fires lit by the members of each household, or on each farm at which ceremonies, to be describe below, were performed for the benefit of that particular household or farm. These, two, were lit in most parts of Ireland, but were, at least in recent tradition, not as widely known as the large communal fires...

>...In general it may be said that the large communal fires were mainly celebrated noisily by music, dancing, singing and similar merrymaking, with other ceremonies as a preliminary or a sequel, while the family fire was a quiet affair in which the protective ceremonies were the main concern of those present, and the only merrymaking was the playing of the younger children about the small fire.^1

There is also material from the National Folklore Collection regarding Midsummer, Bonfire Night, and St John's Eve available on Duchas. With Lá Fhéile Eoin approaching there is also likely to be material on the subject posted on the NFC Twitter so I recommend following them in the days to come.

**

^^1 ^(Kevin Danaher. The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs*. Dublin: Mercier Press, 1972. pp.137-139)

There are three things I'd recommend:

• Buntús Cainte, even though it was created in the '60s, is very much worth getting. You can probably find the audio files online for nothing, but it's worth getting the books as they'll give the vocabulary used and transcripts of the conversations.
  
• Basic Irish and Intermediate Irish are good workbooks and will help teach you the grammar. The former also teaches you Irish phonology and spelling.
  
• Abair is bloody excellent. There's also Forvo, but that can be... misleading.
  
• Finally, the Irish course on Duolingo is still worthwhile as long as you ignore the audio component. Even if your biggest issue is pronunciation, having some way to regularly forcing yourself to practice the language is useful, and you can always use it an an opportunity to practice actually saying things in the language while you're at it.
  
  Listening to RnaG and watching TG4 is also highly recommended.

I used Basic Irish in the past with a Russian student. It's focused a little more on grammar than conversational scenarios, so I'm not sure if that's what you're after. Also, there's no tapes.

I think Ó Sé and Dillon's Teach Yourself Irish, which is also available free online, are meant to be quite good but I have no personal experience.

Hope this helps, and feel free to PM me anytime if you have any questions about Modern Irish. My own isn't perfect but I do my best.

Late to the party, but there was a cassette course from the '90s called Irish On Your Own. It came with a book and I think it was based off an RTÉ series. This is the only Irish course I've found that emphasizes the Ulster dialect.

I didn't get far with it, but it was a pretty friendly intro to Irish compared to the other main courses. It started out learning practical stuff (greetings, family, weather, telling time, etc.). Might be worth checking out.

Good on you!

Unfortunately, there's a lot of atrocious shite on the internet in terms of Irish language "learning" - so be careful. Sealbhach recommended Daltaí na Gaeilge. I second this - it's overall a good site, with some solid grammar review.

I recommend getting a solid beginner's text, preferably one with audio, because you really want to be able to speak the language. Try either Teach Yourself Irish by Diarmuid Ó Sé or Colloquial Irish by Thomas Ihde.

While you're doing this, watch some news programs and whatnot on TG4 (Tee-Gee-Ceathair). Even if you don't understand anything, make a point of listening as often as possible, so that you get used to the rhythm of the language, and how it should sound.

Finally, if you can, try to attend a course in the Gaeltacht. The Acadaimh in Carraroe has courses of varying levels of difficulty and length.

I had this one for primary and secondary school. Found it pretty useful the odd time I used it for essays for the leaving cert

A standard text in secondary schools would be Caislean Óir. It's written in a regional dialect so it might be a bit more advanced, but it's relatively famous and would give you some idea where you stand.

http://www.amazon.com/Caisleain-Oir-Seamus-O-Grianna/dp/1856352781

https://www.google.pl/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=teach+yourself+irish+myles+dillon+and+donncha+%C3%B3+cr%C3%B3in%C3%ADn

I find that hard to believe somehow...

Amazon have a load of copies. You'll have to get the audio from the link the first lad posted though.

www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Teach-Yourself-Myles-Dillon/dp/0340057971

Micheál O' Siadhail seems to be a proper linguist, and his "Learning Irish" uses the standard Irish variant on IPA (wherein /'/ means "spread" or "palatalized" rather than "aspirated") for transcriptions.

ETA: and if you want Irish Text to Speech stuff, check out http://www.abair.tcd.ie/

[Hóng] (https://www.amazon.com/H%C3%B3ng-Irish-Anna-Heussaff-ebook/dp/B00M2U10KU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1521662169&sr=1-1&keywords=h%C3%B3ng)

[Fear na bPéistíní] (https://www.amazon.com/Fear-bP%C3%A9ist%C3%ADn%C3%AD-Irish-Gabriel-Rosenstock-ebook/dp/B00M2U106Y/ref=pd_sim_351_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=4FJNRM943KY7FNT9XQX7)

[Cupla Focal] (https://www.amazon.com/Cupla-Focal-Irish-Anna-Heussaff-ebook/dp/B079P3DDR6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1521662316&sr=1-1&keywords=cupla+focal)

[Club Leabhar] (http://www.clubleabhar.com/Leabhair.aspx?Lang=ga)

Buntus Cainte https://www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cainte-Ceim-hAon-English/dp/1857910656

Teach Yourself Irish (O Se, Sheils) https://www.amazon.ca/Teach-Yourself-Irish-Complete-Course/dp/0658021257/

Duolingo covers Irish, in addition to that I use the TEANGLANN website&app (online dictionary, covers tenses too), for conversation and pronunciation I use an app on IOS called OIDE 2k18 which is used in classroom setting to get students used to how sentences should sound when spoken.

Also for books, there’s the old reliable Buntus Cainte (basic speaking) book w/CD series (I think there’s 3 in total);

https://www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cainte-Ceim-hAon-English/dp/1857910656?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1857910656


Also- take anything you put into google translate with a boatload of salt because it’s extremely hit and miss. In fact I’d nearly recommend avoiding it as the grammar in particular is usually wrong.