In ifrinn is in fact correct- from the old Tuiseal Tabharthach:

Granted, kinda archaic in modern Irish and most dialects but still used by some, mostly Munster, speakers. The Tuiseal Tabharthach can still be seen in some Irish words Éire and in a few common frases. In some cases the tuiseal tabharthach has replaced the origional word: Maidin (origionally maidean(n)). Fearaibh (T. Tabhthch iolra) in Munster instead of fir.

Uatha:

in Éirinn (Éire)
in Albain (Alba/ Alban)
in Ifrinn (aifreann)
i gcéin (cian)
i gcéill

Iolra: ((a)ibh ending)

ins na sgoileannaibh
dos na daoinibh
ar na sléibhtibh

Caithfidh go bhfuil neamh ann, mar tá mo sheal in ifreann curtha isteach agam cheana
looks good to me too: There must be a heaven, because I have put in my time in hell already

Maybe???: Caithfidh go bhfuil neamh ann, óir tá mo sheal in ifrinn istigh agam
There must be a heaven, because my time in hell is up

Daveshaw 13: The origional examples you given sound very Munster Irish: Ní foláir, óir and they don't seem to be to far out. Except for clásal coibhneasta, which if you learn Irish from speaking and hearing it, it is an absolute nightmare to get your head around- because everyone gets it wrong and even if some don't its nearly impossible to know- example in the caighdeán for How are you/ ye- one is suppose to say Conas tá tú or conas tá sibh. Everybody I know says conas atá tú/ sibh.

Scooby you seem to be dead right about: Ní foláir nó...which I have never seen before, and is worrying because I often use Ní foláir: Ní foláir dhom srl...

I checked this up at focal.ie:
and it came up with a few examples:

Te dynamic for future progress must reside in the full use of the democratic politial:ní foláir nó go dtiocfaidh an tapa don dul chun cinn amach anseo as lánusáid na próise polaitiúla daonlathaí (focal.ie)

But funny enough you can say: nach foláir go mbeidh: that both must have equally satisfactory, secure and durable, political, adiministrative and symbolic expression and protection: nach foláir go mbeadh siad araon in ann iad féin a léiriú agus cosaint a fháil i gcúrsaí polaitíochta agus riaracháin agus ar mhodh siombalach, ar bhealach chomh sásúil, chomh seasta agus chomh buan céanna

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I am glad you pointed this out. I have just run into "garsúnaibh" in TYI. Looks like I can cross that off my list of questions and study up on the dative.

GRMA

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

garsúnaibh- the boys.

The dative isn't that complicated at all, I don't really know why it fell out of usage?- my guess is that (a)ibh/ (a)íbh is pronounced like í everywhere bar Munster where its iv/ ív

basically the best way to remember is everywhere you have a réamhfhocal: ar (ar an) le (leis an), ó (ón) (ós) srl... you use it.

The iolra is simple:

you just add aibh/ aíbh to the word: ar na daoinibh
ós na Déisibh

There are a few exceptions were there are a few different interpritations and the verb is in the singular with (aibh/ íbh is added onto it) and some where it changes entirely buaibh (instead of bóibh) but in saying that I have seen bóibh in literature as well.

Singular is the harder bit:

words ending in ian- cian (i gcéin)
grian (ón ngréin)

words ending in long vowels (add i):ar an gcloich
words ending in ach- aigh

Have fun having a crack off learning it and hopfully you can join the wirdo club of people that still use it and I'll have someone else to talk ta

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I am aware of the old dative and that older forms tend to be used in Munster (and I like them! - I particularly lament the passing of the Uimhir Dhé except in 'set phrases'). The problem with saying anything is right or wrong is that in the spoken language there are huge variances - naturally, as in any language. The word ubh for example has about 14 different plurals in speech: uibheacha. uibheachaí, uibh, uibheannaí, ubh... (from my poor memory of the Linguistic Atlas 25 years ago). I always refer to the standard Irish in my comments - otherwise, it's really hard to say anything definitive about anything without knowing every subset of every dialect. We recently had a discussion about English usage recently and we couldn't even agree about that.

I thought that we had agreed to refer to the standard usually and to state when we were referring to something particularly dialectal.

Yes, I agree. Standard Irish should be offered unless a specific dialect is requested.

If giving a dialect version, the person posting should state which dialect they are using.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Yes, I am learning Munster Irish. My father’s people were from the south. If that makes me a weirdo, so be it. Thank you for the synopsis of the dative. Lughaidh did tell me that nouns following most prepositions with the article were in the dative, but issue at hand was eclipsis, so plurals never even entered my head! I had a quick look and it doesn’t seem at all difficult.

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

I had a feeling you were aware of the Tuieal Tabharthach alright, you know your stuff. Yes agreed the caighdeán should be given first preference if a dialect form isn't required- just to stop confusion, but at the same time whoever gave Daveshaw13 their translations, clearly, while not 100% correct, had very natural Irish and in ifrinn was correct in the context- I think it would have been better to point out while archaic it is correct and ifreann should be used instead.

I love the way how bias we are towards our own dialect and how everything else is inferior . No wonder we couldn't defeat the English to busy fighting amongst ourselves as to should it be uibheacha, uibh, uibheannaí or uibheachaí

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The réamhfocal + an = urú/ séimhiú (in Ulster) rule still applies even in the caighdeán.
Ar an gcloch

What makes it the old Tuiseal tabharthach is the adding of te i- ar an gcloich

ón ngrian (standard)- ón ngréín (older tuiseal tabharthach)

The standard Tuiseal tabharthach for plurals drops the (a)ibh altogether

ins na sgoileannaibh, Standard (munster ins na scoileanna which you'll be familiar with from studying Munster irish) (standard in general sna scoileanna)

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An Cionnfhaolach, you're right to say I'm wrong to say it's not right!!! I should say 'non-standard'. It's just that ifrinn was misspelt in another post recently by a non-native speaher - ifreann was definitely intended.

You must think I was being awful picky

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