I was watching this video on reviving the Gaelic dialect of Dalriada http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dalriadagaelic
In it and the associated articles they mentioned it took two years of searching to find the last native speaker of that dialect.

Does anyone know if any similar research was done in Ireland for speakers outside todays Gaeltacht.
Its not beyond the realm of possibility that some speakers may still exist in areas which were deemed to weak to include in the Gaeltacht when the borders were drawn up in the 1950's?

I have heard that there were speakers in Clare until the 1990's even though it was not officially a Gaeltacht , I also met a man from Beara whos parents spoke Irish and I have heard mention of people speaking Irish in areas that would have been Irish speaking in the 1920's but had weakened enough that by the 1950's they were not included in the Gaeltacht.

It would also be plausible that some people raised by older relatives may exist , such as in this article which indicates that there was a speaker of the old Dialect of Dublin Irish until the 1930's http://dublingaelic.blogspot.ie/2014/07 ... n.html?m=1

Are there any books on the topic?

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

Some general records:

Various articles in Stair na Gaeilge Kim McCone (ed.) et al.

Irish Dialects Past and Present T.F. O'Rahilly (tends to write with a hell of a lot of conviction, believes whole-heartedly in his own interpretations in general, many of which have been questioned in recent scholarship).

The Linguistic Atlas of Ireland Collection by Wagner

The Doegen records http://www.doegen.ie/doegen/

Some of the earlier grammar books

Placenames

My interest is in Munster Irish, other people may know of other resources for other dialects. For instance there's a really good Ulster irish website that I can't think of the name of right now.

The records for Irish outside the modern-day classified zones are fairly pauce, though the level of paucity differs greatly from region to region- there are no real in depth grammatical studies, except for the Irish of Clare.


For instance, Gaeilge an Chláir, I'll locate the details of the book tomorrow.

The folklore stories of Stiofán Ó hEalaoire (of him, Séamas Ó Duilearga (James Delargy) said the he was the best Irish speaker that he ever met): Leabhar Stiofáin Uí Ealaoire

For the Irish of North Tipperary/ South Kilkenny (area encompassing Callan): Cín(n) Lae Amhlaoibh Uí Shuilleabháin (there's a really well edited text by De Bhaldraithe, but the most authoritative editions are the ones from the Royal Irish Academy. However, there are a few problems with accepting the Irish of Amhlaoibh as the spoken Irish of Callan before it died out- firstly, Amhlaoibh's diary was written between 1827-35, so his Irish is fairly old; secondly, Amhlaoibh was originally from Kerry, then he moved to Waterford with is family as his father was a hedge-school teacher, before he located to Callan to find work as a hedge-school teacher himself- so his Irish may well be a miss-mash of all three. Interestingly though, Amhlaoibh sometimes comments on the vernacular of the area- discussing unusual words or different nuances of meaning, e.g. the word doch 'early'. Amhlaoibh was a very well educated man - he was a distinguished scribe - and as such had a very good understanding of the tradition and 'Conservative Irish'- therefore, he tended to write in a number of registers- where sometimes he would write with great grammatical accuracy (conservative grammar) and other times his grammar would vary quite a bit even in the same entry- this can clearly be seen in his use of the genitive case. Though, from my own analyses- so take with a pinch of salt and vinegar - Amhlaoibh also used forms that would be considered extremely archaic, but I've found examples in the Doegen records where Déise (Ring, Sean-Phobal) speakers employ the same features while speaking; one such feature is Amhlaoibh's use of gus(s)an (go 'to' + historical -s- (same as the -s- in leis etc...) + the article an); this is also used by one of the speakers in Doegen- suggesting that it may have been a dialectal form until quite recently in Déise Irish. The reason it is archaic is because it comes from Old Irish cossin which has largely been replaced by go dtí or gabháil(t) (góilt).

Tipperary: An Gleann agus a Raibh Ann le Séamus Ó Maolchathaigh (the newer edition is unfortunately heavily standardised (I swear to God, that word is ruining my life). The old edition is found here: http://www.knockmealdownactive.com/cult ... raibh-ann/ (however, there are a lot of mistakes in the transcription- so watch out.)

for Cork Irish (Macroom etc...): the general works of Peadar O Laoghaire (I think it is in one of his letters he mentions the Irish of Fermoy as well).

Irish of Imokilly, Co. Cork: As late as the early 40s (declined rapidly in the 20s), there was a continuous coastal Irish language belt (dialectal continuum) running from the rural areas of Dungarvan to Skibbereen in Co. Cork. (Thanks to Londubh for the reference)

Irish of Ballymacoda (subdialect within Imokilly):

The writings, poems and letter of Pádraig Piarais Cundún from Ballymacoda (bás 1856/57)- edited by Risteárd Ó Foghludha- again, Pádraig was a scribe and thus his writings most definitely reflect the remnants of Classical Irish conventions.

Cian

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice