Textbooks
Textbooks for learning Irish.
Beginner
Basic Irish: A Grammar and Workbook
A structured grammar-and-exercises workbook designed to take learners from early basics to intermediate level.
A textbook written by Associate Professor Barbara Hillers as a teaching aid for her course, teaching standard Irish with Ulster aspects.
A foundational spoken-Irish course built around short dialogues and patterned drills, designed for early-stage learners and class/self-study use.
Colloquial Irish: The Complete Course for Beginners
A self-study oriented course with dialogues and structured lessons.
Gaeilge gan Stró! - Beginners Level
A beginner-friendly multimedia coursebook that introduces everyday Irish through graded units and practical communicative scenarios.
A textbook combining text units with audio and accompanying video episodes, teaching Ulster Irish.
A textbook written by Myles Dillon and Donncha Ó Cróinín teaching dialectal Munster Irish. A later, retypset version of this text exists, however as this was edited to contain errors I have not included it.
Intermediate
The official written standard for Irish: spelling and grammatical conventions intended as guidance for formal writing; widely used as a reference rather than a teaching course.
Colloquial Irish 2: The Next Step in Language Learning
A continuation volume with more complex texts/dialogues.
Gaeilge gan Stró! - Lower Intermediate Level
A follow-on coursebook for learners with basic Irish, extending vocabulary, structures, and fluency through structured units.
An Irish-medium grammar workbook/course that consolidates core structures with explanations and exercises, aimed at improving accuracy and idiomatic usage.
A good reference grammar compiled by an amateur linguist. Unfortunately less detailed than the German version. Requires some basic linguistic knowledge.
A good reference grammar compiled by an amateur linguist. More detailed than the English version. Requires some basic linguistic knowledge.
Intermediate Irish: A Grammar and Workbook
A follow-on workbook that develops intermediate structures and patterns.
Learning Irish
A textbook teaching Connacht Irish, specifically the Cois Fharraige subdialect.
A reference grammar of the Irish language compiled as part of a Routledge series. Requires some basic linguistic knowledge.
Advanced
An Teanga Bheo: Corca Dhuibhne
Short Irish-medium textbook describing the Corca Dhuibhne dialect.
An Teanga Bheo: Gaeilge Chonamara
Short Irish-medium textbook describing the Conamara dialect.
A grammar of the Irish language compiled by the Christian Brothers. Entirely in Irish.