For anyone who’s interested in learning Irish, I’ve put together a little list of resources, some of which I’d heartily recommend and others that I’ve simply accumulated over the years.
Irish TV, films and DVDs:
TG4 (fantastic programmes – I love this site!)
O tholg go tholg – a brand new series on TG4 about couch surfing! [recommended by Emily232 on HTLAL]
Kings (award-winning recent film, predominantly in Irish with English subtitles)
In the Name of the Fada (from the reality TV series, following the Irish-American comedian Des Bishop as he pursues fluency in Irish whilst immersed in the Connemara Gaeltacht)
Gearrscannáin (a selection of 9 of the best Irish language short films from the Oscailt series, broadcast on TG4)
Turas Teanga (DVDs from the TV series, for intermediate learners of Irish)
Aifric (a fun series for teenagers on TG4)
Cré na Cille (a black comedy set in Connemara, and a well-known literary classic; produced in 2007. The accompanying book and CDs are also available from Litriocht, if you’d like to do a bit of listening and reading in Irish too.)
Poitín (a classic Irish film made in 1978)
Mise Éire/Saoirse? (2 historical documentaries in 1 box-set about Ireland’s struggle for independence and the civil war years)
Aisling (A recorded stage play set in mythological Ireland, performed in Irish and narrated in English)
*I’ve also heard rumours about some episodes of Ros na Rún and Seacht (also available on BBC iPlayer in the UK) coming out on DVD at some point, which would be really fantastic. So if you hear anything, please let me know! 🙂
Irish Radio:
Raidió Rí-Rá (especially Top 40 Oifigiúil na hÉireann)
Podcasts, blogs, and online magazines or newspapers in Irish
An tlmeall (bright, lively podcasts on contemporary culture and lots of links)
An Líonra Sóisialta (another site full of colourful podcasts on interesting topics, and well worth bookmarking)
Hilary NY (a great little personal Irish blog, good on you Hilary!)
Gaelscéal – an free online Irish language newspaper [recommended by Khublei from HTLAL]
Nós (a fresh and stylish modern Irish magazine)
Beo! and Gaelport (current news and events in this online Irish magazine, with excellent support for reading new vocabulary!)
Forums for learners of Irish
Daltaí na Gaeilge (there are probably several forums out there, but this is the one that seems to come up the most and offers lots of useful advice)
Irish Translation Forum (this is the second site that pops up the most, and I’m happy to report that its scope is much wider than Irish translations)
Teach na nGealt (here’s another forum I found recently, looks interesting)
Irish study materials with accompanying audio:
“Buntús Cainte 1-3” (fun Irish course in 3 parts for beginners, and also available on IPod from TalkIrish now)
“Turas Teanga” (an intermediate multimedia course)
“Gaeilge agus Fáilte” (I wasn’t so keen on this one, as it attempts to address too many intelligences and just ends up all over the place)
“Learning Irish” by Mícheál ó Siadhail (a good ol’ workhorse and favourite with many, it teaches the Cois Fharraige dialect and seems to still be going strong all these years!)
“Irish Linguaphone Starter” course (tapes) – an excellent overall foundation with 30 comprehensive lessons in “standard” Irish (i.e. an artificial mixture of all dialects really). It’s been out of print since the 80s, I think, but I was able to find a course in my local library several years ago, and every now and again I see one pop up on eBay too. [recommended by Professor Arguelles]
“Irish for Beginners” (just a bit of fun with illustrations and basic vocabulary; the later versions are much improved with online links and an accompanying CD)
“Speaking Irish: Take your Language Skills Beyond Basics” by Siuán Ní Mnaonaigh and Antain MacLochlainn (McGraw Hill: 2008) [suggested by ChristopherB from HTLAL and also highly regarded by Professor Arguelles]
Learn Irish with Liam O Maonlai (an introductory course in 24 situation-based lessons with PDFs and accomanying MP3s)
Reference books and grammars for Irish:
“Progress in Irish” (a handy little grammar book with exercises – answer key and MP3s available online)
“New Irish Grammar” (this Christian Brothers classic is not what I’d call new really, but it’s still a stalwart grammar reference used by many all the same)
“Collins Irish Dictionary” (available in most large bookshops)
Novels, stories and transcripts:
“Harry Potter agus an Órchloch” by J.K. Rowling (author), Máire Nic Mhaoláin (translator)
“Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer (author), Máire Nic Mhaoláin (translator)
“Úlla” by Seán Mac Mathúna (a collection of award-winning stories)
“Caint Ros Muc” (transcripts for over 10 hours of authentic Irish conversation made in the 60s, mostly over a drink or two 😉 )
A list of books translated into Irish (available from Litriocht)
A selection of novels for adult learners of Irish, as well as stories in Irish for teenagers (available from An Siopa Geailge)
A collection of Irish/English dual-language books (again from Litriocht)
Some more bi-lingual books (from An Siopa Geailge)
A nice diskful of contemporary Irish e-books, available from Coislife.
You can find various other multilingual anthologies on both the Litriocht and Coislife websites, including 1000 years of Irish love poetry, Irish proverbs translated into English, Spanish and Polish, and even a fine collection of Irish prayers.
Irish audiobooks and audio courses
“Niall Tóíbín ag léamh Gearrscéalta le Seán Mac Mathúna” (to accompany the stories in Úlla)
“Gaothán” (an adventure story published by Coislife, includes 2 CDs and the full text narrated by the author Liam Ó Muirthile)
“Cré na Cille” (a classic literary text, which is also available as a DVD or book from Litriocht)
“Labharfad le Cách / I will speak to you all” (2 hours of the famous story-teller Peig Sayers, recorded in 1947 and 1954. I’m not sure if the accompanying book, which contains the transcripts and translations for these CDs, is included with the package, or if you’ll need to buy the book separately. Last time I checked the New Island and Amazon websites, you could buy the CD but the book was unfortunately already unavailable.)
“Basic Pimsleur Irish” (8 lessons, just a spoonful of Irish really; nothing substantial. You can get a full transcript of the lessons here)
Free downloadable Irish audio
“Caint Ros Muc” recordings (you can download these for free from the School of Celtic Studies)
Some more recordings of conversation in Irish kindly offered by the School of Celtic Studies, and taken from Brian Ó Curnáin’s book “The Irish of Iorras Aithneach”
Irish language music CDs
“Ceol 07”, “Ceol 08”, “Ceol 09” and “Ceol 10” from Seachtain na Gaeilge (well over 100 artists performing in Irish, and all available from HMV) 😀
*You’ll also find occasional tracks in Irish on albums by members or ex-members of Clannad, as well as other Irish artists like Sinéad O’Connor.
Irish music and video clips on YouTube
An Grá faoi Ghlas (first episode of a Big Brother spoof in Irish, links to the other episodes on the webpage)
A nice collection of Irish music by YouTube user 96cambridge
The Coronas – Heroes and Ghosts
Gemma Hayes – Ran for miles
Des Bishop – Jump around
The Walls – To the Bright and Shining
Mundy – Gallway Girl
Declan O’Rourke – Big bad Beautiful World
Padraig Rushe – Seachracht
This is just a tiny sample of what’s out there. When I bookmarked these last year, there really weren’t that many Irish tracks available on YouTube; but when I checked these today and looked at some of the related links that come up on the right-hand side, it seems that there are absolutely loads now, which is great news! 🙂
Online shopping for Irish resources
I’ve tried out several different companies over the last few years, but the only one that I found consistently helpful was Litriocht. They were very friendly and well-stocked, and I even got 6 free Irish ebooks thrown in with my last purchase – wahey! 🙂
Useful online applications for Irish
Irish speech synthesiser from Trinity College Dublin, which includes a Firefox add-on for synthesising highlighted text whilst reading websites in Irish [suggested by Iversen on HTLAL]
Irish spell-checker (another handy Firefox add-on)
Online verb conjugator for Irish (great for referencing Irish verbs)
Other lists of Irish resources and useful links
Irish Gaelic learners’ material on the Internet (an excellent list of Irish language resources, only eclipsed perhaps by my own (lol) 😉 )
Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge / European Certificate in Irish (you can even certify your language proficiency level and obtain preparatory materials, officially recognised and aligned to CEFR standards)
Listening and reading materials for learning Irish
And I’ve left the very best till last…you can now buy 8 short books by well-known contemporary Irish authors as part of the “Open Doors” collection. And the best part: there are corresponding audiobooks too!
The books are available separately in the original English and Irish translation from New Island Books (and you’ll probably need this link too). Here’s the full list with ISBN codes in case you’d like to look them up or place an order:
Irish: “An Seomra Tobac” by Julie Parsons (ISBN: 9781905494682)
English: “The Smoking Room” (ISBN: 9781904301462)
Irish: “Cailleacha Underbury” by John Connolly (ISBN: 9781905494675)
English: “The Underbury Witches” (ISBN: 9781905494019)
Irish: “Deireadh Seachtaine Craiceáilte” by Roddy Doyle (ISBN: 9781905494637)
English: “Mad Weekend” (ISBN: 9781905494040)
Irish: “Is Gearr…” by Marian Keyes (ISBN: 9781905494644)
English: “No Dress Rehearsal” (ISBN: 9781902602325)
Irish: “Na Tógálaithe” by Maeve Binchy (ISBN: 9781905494651)
English: “The Builders” (ISBN: 9781902602684)
Irish: “Rúin” by Patricia Scanlan (ISBN: 9781905494620)
English: “Secrets” (ISBN: 9781905494026)
Irish: “Tá Jesus agus Billy ag Imeacht go Barcelona” by Deirdre Purcell (ISBN: 9781905494699)
English: “Jesus and Billy are off to Barcelona” (ISBN: 9781902602165)
Irish: “Timpiste Réidh le Tarlú” by Vincent Banville (ISBN: 9781905494668)
English: “An Accident Waiting to Happen” (ISBN: 9781902602721)
And the 8 corresponding Irish audiobooks can be purchased from W F Howes as part of a special project with the “Open Doors” collection to help promote the Irish language.
And if anyone would like to recommend and add to this list (as it’s just what’s sitting on my shelf right now), please feel welcome. It’s only a small fraction of what’s available out there, and I’ve read lots of reviews for other excellent courses and books that would be great to get your input on. I’m particularly interested in getting my hands on more audiobooks in Irish, if you know of any.
Enjoy, and I wish any learners of Irish all the best in their studies! 🙂
Maith thú, I haven’t seen such an extensive list recently. I particularly like that you included Irish music clips, as many learners are also interested in the music and song.
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Would you mind if I also mentioned http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com ? It’s a series of online Irish language lessons.
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Go raibh maith agat, Eoin! There are some superb tracks on the Ceol (SnaG) albums (I’m actually listening to The Coronas in the background right now 🙂 ).
Your website “Bitesize Irish Gaelic” sounds cool and it’s always great to see someone promoting the Irish language and offering resources online. Ádh mór ort!
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Thanks for some Irish radio stations and great tracks. I started to learn Irish quite some time age and this stuff will definitely help my study 😉 I already have seen “Aisling” movie – amazing one ! Suggest to take a glance for everyone. Till next time 😉
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Thanks for dropping by Keliones! I’m really glad to hear that some of these links are helping you out. I imagine that if you can understand Aisling, you’re probably light years ahead of me of course. I must admit I haven’t got round to watching films yet, but I hope to later this year. I have so many amazing Irish DVDs and books calling to me longingly from the shelf right now that it would be a sheer crime not to get my backside into gear and learn enough Irish to appreciate them. So with this in mind, I’ll be taking my first baby steps with Irish in a new project using Buntús Cainte and my study-and-click method very soon, and will include any progress or insights along the way in my weekly logs. I can’t wait to start, and I wish you all the best in your Irish studies this year too. 🙂
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Brilliant job putting this list together. Thanks!
How’s your Irish coming along?
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Thanks Donovan. I’ve collected so many Irish books and CDs now on this list that my language bookshelf only recently collapsed (lol)…a clear sign I should stop collecting and actually start using them. And to answer your question, I’ll be starting a new Irish project tomorrow – so keep tuned! 🙂
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Cool, keep us informed!
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Will do. 🙂 I’m enjoying the cheeky humour in Buntús Cainte and am already a big fan of “Rásaí na Gaillimhe” over on TG4!
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These resources are fantastic – thank you for posting them. Even as an Irish person living in Ireland, they are most useful. I love the Buntús Cainte series. Many years ago at school I used to use my mother’s old copies of these books (since I hated my school textbooks so much :-p). I’ve revived my Irish recently so I must get them out again!
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I’m happy to hear some of these links are useful! I also love the Buntús Cainte series, especially the somewhat dated but hilarious non-PC illustrations. 🙂 Now if only I can invest as much time into learning Irish as I do in collecting the resources…
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Thank you for all the work that you have put into this project. I have been trying to get a hold of WF Howes’ Rúin and Tá Jesus agus Billy … for years now, but I can’t seem to find them for sale. Do you know where I can buy them? The company tells me that it doesn’t sell to the public. It seems to be a very strange way to promote the Irish language, not to mention a peculiar way to conduct business.
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I’ll admit it was a real challenge to get hold of everything in this Open Doors collection as gaeilge. As first I was living in Germany, and they couldn’t export the books for legal reasons, and even after I returned to England, I had to send a barrage of emails and do some serious begging to obtain the accompanying audio and translations.
Most of the titles should be available via Litriocht or Amazon, and after a quick look on WF Howes’ site, I can see they still have some links up for the audiobooks (e.g. Tá Jesus agus Billy ag imeacht go Barcelona). However I bought these 2-3 years ago, and I know they only produced a limited batch back then, so I can’t comment on availability now.
I hope you manage to get hold of these rare gems; and I just wish there were more out there like these! If you don’t have any luck with WF Howes, maybe you could try putting some of the titles into Google and see if any other companies stock the audiobooks. Ádh mór ort!
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[…] Then Kass returned the favour by showing me this: List of Resources for Learning Irish. […]
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