My Irish Language Resource Tier List

The best, the worst, and everything in between.

Nov 27, 2024

made a great tier list of their favorite language learning apps, so I decided to make a version of my favorite Irish language resources!

These all my personal opinions based on my experiences using these apps and resources over the last few years. Everyone learns differently, so what works for me might not work for you and vice versa, but I hope this inspires you to try new things and find your own favorite resources!

For more resources, be sure to subscribe and check out my Masterlist to get over 130 resources to learn and use Irish!

The Categories:

Neamh Heaven
These resources are the best of the best.
Marbh gan é Dead without it
These are the bread and butter of Irish language learning. Many of the resources can be used by learners of all levels, and many can be used by fluent speakers to keep Irish in their lives.
Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste Broken Irish is better than clever English
These resources weren’t essential in my Irish learning journey, but they can be an enjoyable way to practice and keep Irish in your life.
Tús maith leath na hoibre A good start is half the work
These resources are a good place to start! But it’s important to use these resources as a starting point, and/or alongside lessons or more in depth learning.
Ifreann Hell
I see no benefit in using these resources at all.

My Ranking

Neamh Heaven

Immersion Courses and Conversation Groups
Both of these resources are in Neamh for the same reasons.

You can use them at all levels, from beginner to fluent speaker.
(Even native speakers can enjoy these events!)
Speaking and listening practice.
You can meet people who understand what you’re experiencing as a learner and can help point you to more resources, share information and offer support.
Friendships can be formed at immersion events and conversations groups that extend beyond those events themselves, which is incredible both from the perspective of having opportunity to practice, but even more-so on a personal level.
Overtime, these experiences can help Irish become a part of your life rather than just something you are studying.

Marbh gan é Dead without it

Lessons
Group or Private. I personally found I enjoyed having a mix of both.
Group lessons gave me a sense of community and reminded me I wasn’t alone in my language learning journey. It can also be inspiring to see other student’s progress and you can learn from other people’s questions or mistakes.
Private lessons allow you have individualized attention to your own needs and learning style. You also build a relationship with your teacher, which can make it less scary to make mistakes.
TG4
The Irish language television channel.
TG4 and the children’s channel Cúla4 have a ton of content available for free world wide! This is a great resource for listening practice and entertainment. Almost all shows have English subtitles and some have Irish subtitles as well.
Podcasts
I absolutely adore listening to podcasts in Irish. I love that I can get exposure to the language while cleaning, going on a walk, sitting in a car, etc. etc. etc. In late 2021, I started to listen to podcasts as often as I could and it really transformed my listening comprehension. As my comprehension improved, I also found myself coming back to many podcasts with every new episode they released simply because I enjoy listening.
Books
Just like podcasts, reading started as a way for me to build my Irish up from nothing and became something I do for fun! Reading in the beginning can be really difficult, but it helped me expand my vocabulary so much and I really enjoyed that I could spend as much time as I needed deciphering each page.
You can check out this post on my instagram for tips on how to read as a beginner.
Anki
Anki is a flashcard app, much like Quizlet or Memrise. It can seem a little dry and pretty intimidating to get started using it, but Anki has a powerful spaced repetition method, which means showing you the same card again and again at different intervals based on how well you’re able to recall it. There are also a lot of options to customize Anki by adjusting it’s setting and using user created Add-Ons. However, there is a definite learning curve and I believe any flashcard system you enjoy using is the best one for you! If you enjoy it, you’ll keep using it.
Abair
Abair.ie is a speach synthesizing tool that speaks any phrase of Irish out loud. You can also speak/play Irish audio for it and have it convert it to speach. This is an extremely powerful tool.

Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste
Broken Irish is better than clever English

Memrise and Quizlet
As stated above, my personal preference is to use Anki for my flashcards, but I did get my start creating my own decks on Memrise for the first several years of learning and I have used pre-created Quizlet decks from time to time. A pro and con of both resources is that you can find content created by other users. While it can be helpful to have new terms and words to review without finding them yourself, be careful because I have encountered mistakes a few times. But if you enjoy creating your flashcards on either of these platforms or enjoy their unique features such as games and quizzes, these are great resources! They’re just not ones I’ve personally used much.
YouTube
There are some incredible Irish language YouTube channels like Gaeilge i Mo Chroí, Cáit San Áit and Learn Irish. Plus, there is a growing amount of content for learners and speakers of all levels on YouTube. However, currently, it is still lacking variety when it comes to the Irish language and for that reason alone I am putting it at this level. (But the creators themselves are all Neamh level for promoting the language in new ways!)
Foclach and Beach Litríochta
Both Foclach and Beach Litríochta these are Irish language versions of word games that originally existed in English. (Wordle and Spelling Bee.) I think they’re both a fun way to get a little more Irish in your day and even expand your vocabulary.
Clozemaster
Clozemaster is another vocabulary game that is available in Irish. If you have the paid version you can add in your own vocabulary if you like this style of gameifying your vocabulary study. I know a lot of people that would rank this a lot higher than I am, but personally, it’s just not my favorite way to learn vocabulary. But maybe it’s Neamh tier for you!

Tús maith leath na hoibre A good start is half the work

Duolingo
Like many of us, Duolingo was where my Irish language journey began. And I still have a streak I’ve maintained to this day! However, I do not see Duolingo as a meaningful way to learn a language. I think it is an excellent starting point, a great way to explore a new language, and I even think it can be a useful way to practice if you enjoy using it. However, unless you are actively learning outside of Duolingo and using it as a supplement, it will not be particularly effective.
Drops
Drops is a beautifully designed vocabulary focussed app. A lot of the exercises involve matching vocabulary to pictures and spelling words. I do think it’s a fine way to learn vocabulary, but similar to Duolingo, it’s a great starting point but needs to be used alongside other learning methods. Also, I personally find it can be a little overwhelming to add in even more vocabulary if I’m already trying to learn new words and phrases from classes, books, podcasts, etc. so for that reason, I prefer to focus on my own flashcards over vocabulary focussed apps.
The Leaving Cert
If you’ve been through the Irish school system, forgive me. But I did find that past years leaving cert materials were very helpful for me to find level appropriate reading and listening resources. I would have put this in the teir above, but I feel like there are a lot more podcasts, shows, and books available now for learners which are more interesting than the test materials I studied. But there is something to be said for the cultural immersion you get when you start to hear “Léigh anois go cúramach…” in your dreams.
Michel Thomas Irish
Michel Thomas has audio courses is many languages. Some successful language learners swear by this method, while others can’t stand it. In these lessons, a teacher instructs students on the basics of Irish by slowly building sentences and expanding on them. The students repeat back what the teacher is saying and follow prompts to use what they’re learning. This one really does come down to personal preference in my opinion. I did the course when I was a beginner in Irish because I didn’t have access to many resources at the time and honestly wasn’t really sure how to learn a language yet. I did definitely get some benefit out of the course because I was so eager to learn and understand, but I do feel like it wasn’t the most effective use of my time now that I better understand my learning style.

Ifreann Hell

Hello Talk and Tandem
These are both language exchange apps, and unfortunately, in my experience next to no one using them speaks Irish… even if their profile says they do. Furthermore, there are a lot of people using those apps looking to… exchange more than languages. In general, I’ve heard a few success stories from people learning other languages on those apps, but unfortunately, I’ve never found any long term, Irish speaking language partners there. Instead, I would recommend looking for conversation groups and/or getting involved with social media in Irish! You will be sure to meet other Gaeilgeoirí/aspiring Gaeilgeoirí that way.

These are some of the resources I personally have used for Irish and these are my own opinions based on what has and hasn’t worked for me.

What would your teir list look like? Have you used any resources I didn’t list here? Let me know in the comments!