Irish-language TV (accessible worldwide): https://www.tg4.ie/ Best way to upgrade from B1, tons of quality material.
Interactive:
Duolingo. Got worse after they removed native speakers’ voices and grammar notes. Still, can be useful for exercises. Covers about A1-A2.
Fáilte Online: https://www.failteonline.ie/ That’s project of Dublin City University, at this moment all their courses are available on Future Learn, free access for a month for every module, A1-B1. A lot of material, very fast pace, few exercises, so there’s point in either repeating every module later, or saving literally everything for future reference. They use a lot of stuff that’s routinely used in Irish classes at schools, so you end up knowing the same songs as people who attended school in Republic of Ireland
“Buntús Cainte” books with recordings. Irish literally in cartoons and everyday dialogues, audio recorded with Connemara native speakers. Quite an old course, so lexically it’s a bit outdated, but good for authentic pronunciation. Audio (tapes 1-6) can be found here: Index of /Pages/Sean Pages/Downloads Pages
Memrise exercises based on Buntús cainte can be found here: Memrise
Colloquial Irish 1 & 2 books with audio. Connacht dialect (Connemara variant), modern and high quality material.
The Michel Thomas Method Foundation Irish course. Basic Connacht Irish with a big emphasis on practicing the irregular verbs: Michel Thomas Irish | Hachette UK.
“Teach yourself complete Irish”, Diormuid Ó Sé. Relatively easy intro into Irish grammar, but it’s definitely not “complete”. (There’s also 1961 “Teach yourself Irish” book by Myles Dillon and Donncha Ó Cróinín, it’s a different textbook, for Munster dialect.)
“Gaeilge gan Stró”, Beginners level and Lower intermediate level. Exists as both books and interactive courses. Modern and very popular for adult learning.
“Buntus na Gaeilge” by Barbara Hillers. Modern Irish university course. PDFs and audio can be found on her website (Barbara Hillers)
“Learning Irish” by Micheál Ó Siadhail. Classic textbook, comprehensive, heavy reading, university level.
Workbooks:
“Basic Irish: a grammar and workbook” & “Intermediate Irish: a grammar and workbook” by Nancy Stenson, 2008. Both are intended to be used as a supplement for whatever course you prefer.
“Wicked Irish for the traveler” by Howard Tomb (just in case you want to learn how to be rude and inappropriate in Irish, also half an hour of laugh more or less guaranteed)
“500 Mallacht ort” by Breandán 'ac Gearailt (collection of Irish curses)
This is a fantastic list - thank you so much for sharing!!
One of the reasons I’m learning is that I will be going to Galway in April (and possibly again in May), so I’d like to be able to have a conversation or two then. (Any advice on dialect in that case?)
But I was wondering if there were perhaps local centres of learning (Galway University?!) where I might combine my work trip with a bit of time off and join a course. I’ve googled, but I’m none the wiser… Or perhaps a home stay with an Irish-speaking family in the Galway area would do the trick - I’m happy to focus on conversation for now.
Does anyone happen to have any suggestions of where to start looking?
That’s so cool! Galway is a Gaeltacht Service Town for Connemara Gaeltacht, also bilingual capital of Ireland Which means either Buntús Cainte or Colloquial Irish should be a good fit.
Maybe check for courses in Connemara? For example:
When I lived in Galway, I did a couple of conversational Irish classes for beginners hosted by this organisation: Gaeilge ABC Classes | Gaeilge ABC
It was quite challenging because it was the first time I’d done in-person classes that involved having Irish conversations in real time, but it was very good practice.
It doesn’t sound as if you’ll be in Galway long enough to commit to one of the ABC courses, but maybe if you email them with the query you’ve posted here, they might be able to suggest something?
Thank you for that really useful list. A couple more resources that I really liked, and which might complement SS well because they focus on spoken Irish, are:
The Michel Thomas Method Foundation Irish course. Basic Connacht Irish with a big emphasis on practicing the irregular verbs. I did the CD version, but I think you can also do it online: Michel Thomas Irish | Hachette UK
I’d also add that I learned way more from doing the book/cd version of Buntús Cainte in conjunction with the free Buntús Cainte course on Memrise than I did from doing the book/cd version by itself. Having the extra practice exercises on Memrise made things stick better in my memory.
I’m interested in finding out more about the different dialects, and wondered if anyone can recommend a book on the history of Gaeilge similar to the one by Janet Davies on the history of Cymraeg?
I’m not sure if that’s what you have in mind, but “Wars of Words: The Politics of Language in Ireland 1537-2004” might be interesting read. Also maybe “Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape”, it has some interesting insights about differences between dialects.
The language carrieth such difficultie with it, what for the strangenesse of the phrase, and the curious featnes of the pronuntiation, that a very few of the countrie can atteine to the perfection thereof, and much lesse a forrener or stranger. A gentleman of mine acquaintance reported, that he did see a woman in Rome, which was possessed with a babling spirit, that could have chatted anie language saving the Irish: and that it was so difficult, as the verie divell was gravelled therewith.
— Richard Stanihurst, “A treatise containing a plain and perfect description of Ireland” (1577)
Sounds and spelling of Irish, 15-minute intro: broad/slender, fada, lenition, eclipse. Not exhaustive, but gives some idea of how to pronounce Irish words.
The first is that the series Cra (sorry no fada…) is still on iPlayer. I started watching it last night and it’s hooked me already. It’s set in Donegal, and I’m pleased at how much I’m able to understand (with the help of the English subtitles).
The second is “Learn Irish Online” (LIO) on YouTube/Instagram/TikTok. A very nice young Irish man who does bite-sized lessons, most of which are subscription only but lots of which are available for free. He also does a podcast every week in 3 versions - normal, easy and very easy (where he says everything twice - in English and in Irish). I listened to a couple in the gym (originally tried to do SSi but apparently trying to speak Irish and count to 8-12 reps simultaneously is not possible!) and again found I could understand a heartening amount I think I’ll subscribe once I’ve got to the end of the SSi course to help me build on what I’ve got so far.
Currently watching it for about the fourth time… but I remember the first time I watched it, and the moment when Ciara-Kate said to Conall Is féidir liomsa cabhrú leat! and I had a little squee because I had suddenly understood a whole sentence in Irish Admittedly, I got the -sa off Scots Gaelic Duolingo, but the rest of it was straight SSi Irish!
Kind of… It’s emphasis, the sort of thing that’s hard to do without tone of voice or italics. SSi Irish does introduce it a little later on, and their version of go bhfuil aithne agamsa orthu (as opposed to just aithne agam orthu) is “that I myself know…”
I don’t know if you’re into property programmes - I’m usually not, but there isn’t a whole lot of Gaeilge on iPlayer - but I’ve just quite enjoyed an episode of “Bog Amach” (“Move out”). Interesting dynamic with the daughter speaking Irish and the mother English throughout - I don’t know how much was “I can understand you, but my Gaeilge isn’t good enough for broadcast,” and how much was “We’ll translate for you and edit it out in post.”
Grammar moment. You say agamsa and agatsa, but againne and agaibhse. That’s the same emphasis, but it’s variant depends on preceding vowel. Consonants are pronounced either as broad or as slender depending on being surrounded by either broad vowels (a, o, u) or slender (i, e). sa emphasis will follow broad vowel, se emphasis will follow slender vowel. Kinda why there are so many vowels in Irish words In modern orthography they have to always match.
LOL! My Welsh-learning journey involved me watching an awful lot of things I wouldn’t usually watch (but that ended up with me getting a job in TV, so hey…)
In modern orthography they have to always match.