Does someone know which is the most recent edition of Learning Irish by Michael Ó Siadhail? Is there a great enough difference between the editions, that you would reccommend buying one over the others? Do all editions come with audio recordings, or are those published/updated separately? Thanks for anyone who can help.

P.S. I don't speak Irish! =)

Is this Michael Ó Siadhail supposed to be good or something?

His book is. Why, would you say otherwise?

I've certainly seen the book sold separately; why one would want to omit the tapes I couldn't hazard to guess. If you're buying online, be sure they sell you the recordings as well.

My copy is from the early 1980s, and came with 3 tapes. In the early 1990s it was rereleased with 4 tapes. At the time it was hyped that the book was "totally retypeset", but I glanced at it and it looked just like my early 1980s book, so I didn't bother repurchasing. I did later acquire the 4-tape set off eBay, and it does have some extra recordings that the original edition didn't have.

His book is pretty much accepted as the most complete resource for those wishing to learn Irish on their own.

It isn't easy and there's a ton of information in the small print and footnotes that you will miss if you aren't looking for it. But, pretty much all you need to know is right there in his book.

Caveat: It focuses on the Cois Fhairrage dialect spoken west of Galway.

Great book but almost useless without the tapes.

I bought my tapes after I got the book. Now I'm looking for the CD's. Seems they don't put cassette players in US autos anymore!!

Well I've found some really cheap used (and pretty lowpriced new) copies of Learning Irish online that I do not think come with the tapes, so I'm wondering if I need a specific edition of the tapes to go with an appropriate edition of the text.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0300064632/ref=cm_rev_next/104 -0557160-1429537?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=2 83155&s=books&customer-reviews.start=11

Is that link there just the tapes, but not the text? The headings would indicate so, but the reviews confused me.

James, I've been reading as much about this book as I can get my hands on. All the reviews seem great, and it seems geared towards my style: old fashioned with grammar and vocabulary memorization, academic, yet practically applied. I bought TYIrish quite awhile ago and am getting really fed up with it's taking me nowhere and leaving more questions than answers in my head with its confusing and random layout … but I'm just hesitating to buy Ó Siadhail completely new, like off Amazon or something.

Thanks for everyone's replies.

Aindréas,

Amazon seems to have several listings for LI, I think that one you've posted is book - only. Try this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300084161/qid=1150939185/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/1 04-3431874-1925542?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

It says there are tapes with it.

Here's a listing without the tapes, just for comparison:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300064624/ref=ed_oe_p/104-3431874-1925542?%5Fe ncoding=UTF8

Both listings have the same reviews, as far as I can tell.

Why are you hesitant to buy it off of Amazon? I've bought both new and used off of Amazon, and I've been very satisfied.

I have the newest edition of LI and that was released in 1995. It's the 3rd edition.

If it can be of any help, the ISBN for the set containing both the book and the 4 audio tapes is 0-300-08416-1.

Didn't say it wasn't good, I just never heard of it.