Hey all, what would you recommend as the best way to start learning the language?

Find a teacher. If there are no classes available near enough to you, I recommend Buntús Cainte. It's a good basic which will give y ou a start on a beginner's level without investing a lot only to find that you don't care to continue for whatever reason

I vote for Buntús Cainte too (it's in Munster Irish) and there's Liam Ó Maoinlaí's 'Learn Irish' which you can download at the Sunday Independent site and there's Eoin who's waiting for you at One Minute Irish (though it's all in the wrong order so you'll have to scroll down to get to the first one) -
http://radiolingua.com/category/shows/oml-irish/
and there are all the various links on the Links page for you to explore.
Slán go fóill
Franc

Isn't it in Standard Irish?

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

Buntús Cainte is a good conversation course.

It's in standard Irish (closer to Connemara Irish than to Munster Irish, I would say). It's actually a very old radio course from RTÉ. No grammar explanations, just a very gradual introduction to progressively more complicated structures. (If you have a more analytical mind, however, it leaves lots of questions unanswered, though of course you can always ask those questions here to get the answers. )

More advanced courses tend to be dialect based so it is a good idea to find out exactly where your family connections are in Ireland, or where you would most likely be heading, before delving deeper.

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[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
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).

I was always under the impression that it was Munster - for example when they pronounce inniu, they pronounce with a 'v' at the end.

u sometimes has a slight "v" quality even in Connemara. If it were Munster, they would say "beg" instead of "bay" for beidh, and -igh endings would be pronounced -ig, etc.

On the whole Buntús Cainte is standard Irish with good pronunciation, i.e., not anglicized.

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[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
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).

Maybe it is Standard Irish pronounced as if it were Munster Irish, but it doesn't mean it is Munster Irish. It is more than simply a couple of pronunciation rules.



not before subject pronouns, they say "be' sé" normally, not "beig sé" for instance.

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

Have you all seen the "Bitesize Irish Gaelic" site that offers lessons with audio on line? You need to sign up/there is a monthly charge, but I think the lessons are quite good and there are about 120 of them available once you sign up. You can check out the site, and a sample lesson. I think it's www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com (or just google
Bitesize Irish. One nice thing about it is the múinteoir/teacher (name is Eoin)is really good about answering email questions/comments; he is very helpful and timely with his responses. I think it's a good site for beginners especially.

And of course, I've always liked the "Giota Beag" lessons from BBC.

Hope this helps.
There are other materials I like, but need to go for now. Will be back on laterl
CheerioTexas

My point was they don't use any of those Munster variants anywhere in Buntús Cainte.

As I said, it's "standard" (lárchanúint based on Connemara pronunciation) without anglicization.

Bitesize is a really well-designed course. All it needs to complete it is some recordings by native speaker to bring the sound files and pronunciation examples up to standard. Eoin did the recordings himself but he is a second-language Irish speaker with an anglicized accent (aka "school Irish").

This is the case with so many otherwise excellent courses on the internet.

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[hr]Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher[/hr]
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).