Hello Rob,

Reading Irish can seem quite complicated at the beginning, but there is a logic to the orthography (and in fact it's very regular). Unfortunately there aren't very many good explanations of it which are accessible to beginners, which is why I decided to write something myself -- let me know if you'd like me to email it to you.

You're right, many courses seem to assume that knowledge of Irish spelling and pronunciation is somehow innate and therefore limit themselves to a somewhat perfunctory explanation, if they explain it at all. Of course, this leaves anyone brought up outside of an Irish-speaking community (i.e. most of the world) somewhat perplexed. Message me your email address and I'll send my document over to you.

Definitely Coligno!

I have a linguistics background, so usually relish getting into arcane technical trivia!  But, even the beginner's stuff on the orthography is really difficult - or at least impractical for learning.  Most of them talk about being accessible, but then they trot out these rules (and yes, I can see, once you know the system, that Irish orthography is far more regular than English) without one or two examples and then move on to something else, or 'explain' concepts 'broad' and 'slender' consonants and vowels without any real definition.  I've actually been quite gobsmacked about how poor the materials are!  I assume it's partly because most people learning Irish would be Ireland, exposed to Irish writing everywhere and able to ask questions of people around them, so the written materials don't need to cater to poor confused foreigners!

cheers,

Rob