Learn Connacht Irish
through native speech.

Language learning is an innate skill everyone possesses. The rate of acquisition varies according to experience, confidence, access, commitment level and time resources. Given some basic school Irish and a medium commitment level (one or two classes per month, on and off) two years is a reasonable timeframe to go from no conversational ability to being able to converse with a native speaker.

People with better starting ability and self-confidence can certainly manage it in half the time, likewise complete beginners might take an extra year or two.

You may give up multiple times, that's perfectly normal. Life, work intervenes. One thing is certain - if you persevere, you will succeed eventually.

Yes all resources on this site are free. Our goal is to provide a high quality dataset of native Irish speech for learners to use in their own learning journey. We don't want to block anyone from using it for want of money.

Abairt is not operated for any commercial gain, we don't track you or your data, or collect any metrics. If you sign up your email is used for login and app related notifications, that's it.

We make no claim on the material on this site. It's freely shared and the copyright and licensing is the exclusive right of the owners of the original recordings.

You are welcome to fork the code and build your own language community.

While we're developing formal courses, here's a proven approach to learning Mayo Irish:

1. Find a mentor: Connect with a native speaker for one-on-one guidance, either online or in person. This is the single most important factor for success.
2. Build vocabulary: Use spaced repetition apps like Anki with word lists from this site that include native audio and context.
3. Listen actively: Study recordings on this site, repeat phrases, and copy the sounds and rhythm. Also listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta regularly.
4. Learn grammar later: Unless you're an experienced language learner, focus on speaking first. When ready, try Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail or Nualeargais.
5. Read contemporary Irish: Follow nos.ie and tuairisc.ie for daily news. Use browser translation tools to create vocabulary lists.

No: you do not need to sign up to use this site. Sign up if you want to contribute to the site.

After you've been granted access, you just need to click on 'login' and enter your email to receive a login link. There are no passwords.

Yes, one of the founders of this site is a non-native speaker, Darren Ó Riagáin, who is said by native speakers from Dún Chaocháin to sound indistinguishable from them. There are a few aspects to achieving native like fluency:

• Use the sounds of Irish, don't use the sounds of English. Many monoglot English speakers will be unaware that the English language has a particular set of pronunciations that clearly distinguish it (as do all languages). If you use these sounds instead of Irish ones, you will always sound like you're speaking English, even if you use Irish words. Abairt helps here by allowing you to hear native pronunciation when learning, in a natural conversation flow.
• Use Irish idioms and syntax. If you translate English into Irish directly it will sound like English to people who know it (almost everyone these days, unfortunately).
• Time. You will be able to speak after a couple of years but achieving native fluency is a matter of time, experience and accumulation.

Here are some tips to get the most from Abairt:

• Start with the map: Click on locations to discover speakers from different areas and hear regional variations.
• Use the search: Search for specific words or phrases in Irish or English to find relevant recordings.
• Adjust playback: Use the speed controls to slow down speech, loop segments, and practice pronunciation.
• Read transcriptions: Toggle between Irish and English subtitles to understand context and meaning.

Earlier versions of Abairt included features like integrated chat, spaced repetition learning, video calling, and various interactive tools. These have been removed to focus on what we do best.

Why the change? While these features seemed useful in theory, they weren't very good in practice. Rather than maintain mediocre learning tools, we decided to concentrate on building the highest-quality dataset of native Irish speech possible.

The new approach: By focusing exclusively on data collection, transcription, and community curation, we can provide a superior foundation that specialized tool creators can use to build much better learning applications than we ever could.

This means you get access to authentic, well-curated Irish language content that can be used with the learning tools and methods that work best for you - whether that's Anki, language exchange apps, or whatever new tools emerge in the future.

Please be aware of these current limitations:

• Desktop recommended: This site works best on larger screens. Mobile support is limited but planned for future development.
• Performance considerations: Abairt runs on modest infrastructure to keep costs low. You may occasionally experience slower performance or brief downtime during maintenance.
• Service dependencies: Some features depend on external services (like abair.ie) which may be temporarily unavailable.
• Bug reports: Found an issue? Please report it on GitHub - we appreciate your feedback!