While I believe everyone should use whatever Irish they have, when teachers try to teach Irish without having learnt to pronounce the language properly, they effectively teach something that is NOT Irish and lead their students away from genuine Irish.

Students likewise deserve to be warned before they blunder into the trap of learning non-native Irish from non-native teachers.

There are arguably more speakers of Indian English than any other dialect of English. Imagine if they decided that their English was the new standard and started teaching it as "native" English worldwide. I imagine there would be quite a lot of resistance to that idea from other English speakers.

The native-based standard dialect pronunciation I recommend has been available since 1967. It is found in Buntús Cainte. I think all non-native Irish teachers would do well to study that text before trying to teach Irish. Even after an equivalent amount of time on the wrong path, it is never too late to try and learn to speak Irish properly. (The first step to being a good teacher (or student) is to realise there is always room for improvement.)

I tried the Is féidir liom program with my kids and the idea is great. (Incidentally, it didn't work in Chrome or Firefox on the Mac but worked perfectly in Safari.) However, I wouldn't want my kids picking up the Séamus' accent - it only worked because I was there to reread all of the words for them with the correct pronunciation. They were rapped with the interface and I corrected the mistakes.

Interestingly, the pronunciations that troubled me most weren't bean and beach. Native speakers in recordings in Learning Irish and The Irish of Iorras Aithneach County Galway pronounce bean almost exactly like "ban" though there is also one instance of a stronger y glide.

To me it was rather the anglicised r's, the diphthongizing of vowels, the use of a broad gh in an ghrian (it should be more like yih-RhEE-un, see here) and the mispronunciation of the u in cupán (The Irish u should sound like a short oo in "cook", not like the English "cup" even in this word.)

But as Braoin said here, even if it is not perfect, it is not as bad as some of the stuff that is out there. It is a great idea that simply needs to be taken that final step to round it off properly.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
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).

You can make your point without being rude Patrick.


I listened to a few of the lessons.
There are words that I personally would say differently e.g. -
An ghrian; cnoc; cnámh; hata; portán; dath; scairf (no R); etc.
And obviously how I'd say - cat; madra; úll - would be distinctly dialectical.

I spotted a typo too -
19.Bhí na prátaí i mala an tseanfhir.
(or maybe he was just a messy eater lol)

It is a well laid out course. Nice and colourful, attractive to children.
As Séamus said it's a work in progress.
Good luck with it Séamus.

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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