In the very first sentence in the Irish column in the Irish Echo a week ago, there is a word that I cannot find in any dictionary (the big new standard one or Dineen's). The word is airíos and the senctence is:

Is mar mhallacht a chéad airíos féin é measaim; "Lomadh an Luan ort," a deirtí, agus ní le meas é.

Any help deciphering this word (and any idiomatic expression that it is part of in the sentence) would be very much appreciated.

This particular column seems to usually have many words that can't be found in dictionaries.

It's the 1st sg. past tense form of "airigh" (to feel, hear): "It's as a curse that I myself first heard it, I think..."

Thank you very much, Dennis.

But your answer tells me that I need a grammar for the "older" or dialect versions of Irish. The form airíos is clearly an older synthetic form. The form looks like the older conjugations for the irregular verbs in the back of the Dineen dictionary. But that dictionary has no further grammar, not even the conjugations for the regular verbs, which airigh would be.

Does anyone know of such a grammar, or maybe one for each dialect?

Many things I want to read seem to require such a grammar. Perhaps official government documents are in the "standard" irish, but numerous books, plays, poetry by people who are native speakers aren't so restricted.
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The Munster dialect still routinely uses a lot of "táite" or inflected forms of verbs. I think the best place to go for them is the *old* _Teach Yourself Irish_ by Myles Dillon and Donncha Ó Cróinín. It was in print at least as late as 1988, and there are still a lot of them around as used books. _An Teanga Bheo: Corca Dhuibhne_ by Diarmuid Ó Sé, published in 1995 by ITE gives a run-down on the current state of that one major Munster dialect, including the verbs, but in seeking to accurately represent the spoken language it uses some odd non-standard spellings ("ghlaehach sé" instead of standard "ghlaofadh sé", for example). The other place to go for this kind of information (and a great deal more!) is the massive _Stair na Gaeilge_. But my first recommendation would still be the old TYI. If worst comes to worst and you can't find a copy to buy, just get it from the library and xerox it!