Frontman of the band Hothouse Flowers, Liam Ó Maonlaí, published a 2-CD set for learning conversational Irish. The CDs were published with the Sunday Independent in 2007.
This course has been created to help you learn, or re-learn, a range of simple words, phrases and expressions on everyday topics that can be easily used within your own daily life. There are no accompanying textbooks, so simply listen, repeat and enjoy an cúpla focail for yourself!
Believe it or not, the last official English-Irish dictionary to be published was 50 years ago, but Tomás de Bhalraithe (see English-Irish Dictionary reviews).
The dictionary project (see foclóir.ie) has been undertaken by Foras na Gaeilge, the body responsible for the promotion of the Irish language throughout the whole island of Ireland. Part of their responsibility is to develop Irish dictionaries.
Claims to have “Every Irish Book in Print”. The web site’s interface may not be perfect, but they do offer a great range of Irish books. Specifically, look at their dictionaries section.
Prices in Euro and shipped from Co. Kerry, Ireland.
It’s good to pick up a dictionary, especially if you’re already familiar with Amazon. However, their classification of Irish dictionaries isn’t very straight forward. The edition of a certain dictionary they stock may not be the latest edition, and it’s often not easy to make out exactly what dictionary you’re reading about!
3. An Spailpín Fánach
Sells a small selection of Irish dictionaries, but the dictionaries are the old An Gúm (publisher) favourites.
Prices in Euro and shipped from Co. Galway, Ireland.
It’s pretty easy to be scared away by any language’s grammar system.
If you are a native English speaker, what doesn’t help is that the English language became much more simplified during the last millenium. It lost many aspects that you’ll see in other languages, such as the gender of nouns (le or la in French), and declensions (e.g., in German).
But there’s no avoiding grammar if you are learning a new language. While maybe complex, grammar does makes sense. Obvious patterns will emerge when you study how Irish sentences are formed. You will have lightbulbs going click! over your head when you figure out different rules.
There’s no easy and fast way to learn Irish grammar. Over at Irish Gaelic Translator.com you can pick up your free PDF download (no registration required) of Wombat’s Irish Grammar Guide. Wombat goes through the basics of Irish grammar, in a style that’s aimed towards non-linguists.
Apart from online media such as TG4 television, and Raidió na Gaeltachta, the Irish language can also be found on social media sites such as YouTube.
YouTube is a great place to find people speaking and practicing Irish. You can also reply to a video with your own video, allowing you to practice with others.
Take a look at this video of two Conemara men talking with a tourist beside them. With my own Munster Irish, I find it very hard to even catch a couple of words. They’re speaking faster than you’d normally hear on Raidió na Gaeltachta:
