A few years ago, someone recommended that Pádraig mac Piarais is worth reading - good quality, but accessible Irish. Can anyone verify this and what would you recommend? I need to get reading, but don't want something too tough or I'll give up. Not doing nearly enough reading and anything I do is generally for kids or is very recently written. Looking to up my game - a little bit.

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A novel will be a hard place to start, short stories are better I think. Since Ó Conaire is well known for his short stories I'd recommend one of the two collections of them:

http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_i ... FdVB_msXsY
http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_i ... FdVC_msXsY

Beagnach Fíor is a good collection to start with.

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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

Dia dhuit a Shaoirse,

I'm going back a bit, but I used to have a copy of his collected works. including his children's stories (Eoinín na nÉin, Íosagán 7rl). You can probably pick up a copy in the Irish section of Hanna's or maybe the Government Publishing Co.

Jaysus, I'm an egit! You asked about Pádraig mac Piarais.

This collection is a good one:

http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_i ... FdZvPmsXsZ

There are two dual language books printed of his works, although they can be hard to get your hands on. Saves constantly flipping to the dictionary.

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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

I managed to get hold of a second-hand edition (reprinted 1991) of Padraic Pearse Short Stories - a dual-language book edited by Desmond Maguire (Mercier Press). Other editions of it are still available second-hand from Amazon UK etc - but you can also find this and other books by him on Bookfinder.com

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You might be interested in the ''Urscealta'' group on Yahoo. There are about 25 active members.Each one reads and translates one page at a time - so not too much pressure. We are presently reading ''Bealtaine'' by Brian Ó'Baoill and An tAthair Pádraig Ó Duinnín le Biddy Jenkinson.

Séamus

That sounds like a very good idea. How can I find out more about it?

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Brian Farrelly is the ''Fear 'a tí, múinteoir agus coordinator of the group. Send him an email at urscealta-subscribe@yahoogroups.com indicating you would like to join the group. We are close to finishing the book Bealtaine and will be starting a new one soon .

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