In 2023 I started to learn the Irish language. I don’t know a lot about my family history, but I know my Nanna’s family is from Co. Tipperary. I thought learning Irish would be a nice way to connect with that.
There are Irish language associations all over the world. The one in Australia is Cumann Gaeilge na hAstráile but there are a few state-specific ones.
I started off with using Duolingo but quickly realised more was necessary. I have been taking weekly classes. If you can find a teacher that is the best thing I think!
I use a few different textbooks:
Gailge Gan Stró! by Éamonn Ó Dónaill (also an online course)
Búntus Cainte by Tomás Ó Domhnalláin
Progress in Irish by Mairéad Ní Ghráda
I’ve also started using the app Mango, which is usually paid but all the endangered languages on there are free to access. So you can do the Irish course on there for free. It’s better than Duolingo I think because it uses actual humans to do the voices (Duolingo has switched to AI voices, which often pronounce things wrong) and it has lessons about grammar and explains things, where Duolingo doesn’t explain anything. I still use Duolingo for every day practice because I think it’s pretty good for that!
Some podcasts that I enjoy are:
Motherfoclóir (in English) - a group of friends who often have guests on to talk about the Irish language
Nuacht Mhall - 5 minute news reports. The reader’s location is in the episode title for dialect purposes. Every episode has a transcript so you can read along and there is a glossary at the end
Bitesize Irish Podcast (in English) - interviews with different Irish speakers and learners, occasionally in Irish
Gaeilge Weekly - every week two episodes are put out on the same topic. One is in simple, slowed-down Irish and the other is in fluent, regular-paced Irish.
For the radio, I use radio garden to listen to some Irish-language radio stations. If you search “raidió” there you can find all the Irish-language stations.
For TV and movies, TV station TG4 has their programmes available online (some are region-locked), and their children’s channel Cúla4 has just kids stuff.
For books, I have ordered a couple of things from An Siopa Leabhar.
The Cumann’s old website also has lots of resources, and I use fadas5 to type fadas on my laptop which is really handy.