People know about Breifne, Déise etc as old kingdoms, and often Irish dialects followed them, but this would have changed a little before the collapse in the 18th and 19th centuries.

My question is what dialect regions existed until recently? Examples would be:

Oriel (Armagh, Monaghan, Louth, north Meath)
Déise (Waterford, East Cork, South Tipp, (Kilkenny)?)
Thomand/Tuamhain (Clare, north Tipp, (north?) Kerry, Limerick)

Connachta seems to have been one

Tír Chonnaill? (Donegal, Derry, Tyrone)
Ulaidh? (Down, Antrim)


Where did that leave Fermanagh and Cavan? Most of Laighin spoke Muster Irish. Which type/?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

A triple subdivision of Munster is made necessary by the fact that short accented vowels in heavy syllables assume at least three distinct grades of intonation. The members of this partition shall be called 1" Thomond (Clare, Limerick), 2' Des- mond (Cork, Kerry), and 3" the country of the Desi comprising Waterford and the southern portion of Tipperary. As the last-mentioned division is my native language-territory I shall treat of its dialect specially giving such references to the variant usages in the others as will be helpful towards the reading of the whole body of Munster Poetry.

The district here called the country of the Desi or shortly Desi, is that comprised by the present Dioceses of Waterford and Lismore. To this add the baronies of Iverk and Ida in Kilkenny. Boundaries: From the Meeting of the three Waters below Waterford to Dunmore, along the coast to Youghal, by the Blackwater to Lismore, over Cnoc Mael domnaig to the meeting point of Cork, Limerick and Tipperary at Kilbehenny, along the Galtees to Sliabh na mhan, along the Walsh Mountains to Tory Hill and to The Meeting of the Three Waters. The inhabitants may be distinguished by their sur- names into various races: Irish, Cymric, Danish, Norman and English. In East Waterford the Norman element prevails

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

http://www.balleawriters.com/ballea/pub ... guages.pdf

Language in Wexford in the 18th and 19th centuries. Doesn't mention dialects tho


Medieval Irish kingdoms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_kingdoms

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

This book, the Dialects of Irish by Raymond Hickey talks about the boundaries
http://books.google.ie/books?id=Bkk-PuU ... ce&f=false


and this set of slides:
https://www.uni-due.de/IEN/Linguistic_B ... reland.pdf
has the graphic titled Reconstructed distribution of <ao> realisations on the basis of placename evidence (you'll have to scroll down to get it, p. 31) shows the distribution of one of the more salient dialect differences, that of how 'ao' was pronounced. It clearly shows three main areas with Leinster a possible Connacht/Munster mix

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

interesting that some areas were far more heavily Irish speaking than existing Gaeltachts and now very little to no Irish is spoken there today.

Uíbh Ráthach over 80%, very little now
Béarra and all west cork was the same strenght as Corca Dhuibhne and now nothing spoken there.

All west clare , East Galways, most of Mayo etc.

Wonder why some areas declined so rapidly.Cliffden for example was over 80% irish speaking, now nothing.

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

Co. Dún na nGall is composed of Tír Chonaill and Inis Eoghain.
Ulaidh is the old province and it's not only the 6 counties since it contains several counties that are in the Republic.

Btw "Ulaidh" is originally a people's name (the Ulates) ; "Uladh" is a genitive plural (of the Ulates) and "Ultaibh" is the dative plural, that's why you say "Ulaidh", "Cúige Uladh" and "in Ultaibh".

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Why? Social networks, communal attitudes, proximity to market towns (or not), geography, assistance from outside, even self awareness, perhaps.

It would be interesting to be able to know, gan dabht

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

My idea on this thread was to primarily, work out what the dialects and sub-dialects were and, secondly, ask to what degree they mapped onto old Gaelic polities

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

I think the basic picture is supposed to be:
(by sub-dialects, these dialects have no standard names, so I've just made some up)

West Munster dialect: Kerry, Western Cork.
Déise: Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick, North and East Cork, Southern Clare, Kilkenny, Carlow, (Wexford?).

Western Connacht: Conamara, North Clare
General Connacht: Rest of Galway, South Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Offaly, Laois, Longford, Westmeath.
Northern Connacht: North Mayo, Western Cavan. (i.e. Connacht grammar with Ulster accent.)

Oriel Irish: Monaghan, East Cavan, Louth, Armagh, North Meath.
West Ulster: Donegal, Tyrone, Derry.
East Ulster: Derry, Antrim, Down.
Scots Ulster: Seaboard of Down and Antrim, Rathlin island.

Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare and South Meath are thought to have been related in some way to General Connacht, but it's not certain if it was essentially the exact same dialect or simply similar. Regardless, they appear to have been a "Connacht type" dialect.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

In parts of Ulster, wouldn't there have been some measure of influence directly from Gàidhlig just as much as there would have been from Ulster Scots? I'm thinking of the use of the negative chan, for example and not only that, I was under the impression that Irish speakers in Ulster could understand Scots Gaelic with not too much difficulty. So there would have been at least some linguistic interaction going on there?