I'm considering buying a book entitled Fiche Duan, a collection of poetry put together by Shán Ó Cuív.

But I'm wondering...

My understanding is that he had plans to bring Irish spelling more in line with english phonetics (hence the respelling of his name). Can I expect the book to use proper spellings or follow his creation?

I don't think it's in the "Letiriú Shímplí" that he and Bergin came up with. Apparently none of the little books he published actually were:

"Tugtar faoi deara, áfach, gur sa litriú traidisiúnta a cuireadh corp leabhrán Uí Chuív i gcló, fiú má baineadh úsáid as an gcló Rómhánach in áit an chló Ghaelaigh...." Stair na Gaeilge, lch. 46

I've a few items authored by "Shán". They're occasionally interesting when they're typeset with real Irish on one side & Shánish on the other (as he was basically trying to phoneticise Irish), but miserable when in Shánish alone. Poor well-intentioned Shán tried to be a one-man caighdeán but no one bought into it. Though some days I'm not sure his ideas were much worse than the caighdeán we got. (sigh)

Antaine, I may have that book. I'll have a look today & let you know -- and also whether it's in Irish, Shánish, or both.

Ok, Antaine, I have a 1924 edition; it's pre-Caighdeán Irish on left pages, Shánish on the right, 76 pages altogether. Each selection also has some notes, and there's a little foclóirín as well.

Does anyone have links to sample texts in Letiriú Shímplí online? I'm just curious to see what it looks like.

Seo sampla duit:

Ví loch breá muar fairshing a lár machuiri, agus é lán ó häv täv do roganuiv.

Bhí loch breá mór fairsing i lár machaire, agus é lán ó thaobh taobh de fhroganaibh.

Some recent references to Shán & his "leitriú shimplí" by his grandson:

http://www.gaelport.com/index.php?page=clippings&id=431&viewby=date
http://www.gaelport.com/index.php?page=clippings&id=490&viewby=date