From An t-Oileánach:



The English is 'I used always to do marketing in Dingle, going sometimes by land and sometimes through the whole length of Dingle Bay.' Why is it 'á chomáint and not just ag comáint?

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

I'd guess:
"v. tr." (verb transitive) in Dinneen's dictionary
So he felt to have to drive something to market (cattle, a vessel, a car, etc.)
Mise ag comáint would be intransitive.

Thanks

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

Does á chomáint refer to "an peata" earlier in the passage? Taking the youngest child in the family (the "pet") to the market? Or have I misunderstood the context?

When he talks about an peata he is speaking about himself in the third person. I suppose that grammatically that theory could work, but I feel like it would be strange in any language to have both the first and third person being used in the same sentence to refer to the same person.

_________________
I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

OK.

maybe mise am chomáint would make more sense?