I have Version 8 of "Learn Irish Now!" by Transparent, which I got about a year and a half ago at a second-hand book store for something like $30.00.
Apparently they're up to Version 10 now and it is, as you say, about $50 new from their website:
http://www.transparent.com/ For me, as a complete beginner with no native speakers at hand, this program has been well worth the investment if for no other reason than that it guides me through pronunciation via copious audio files. This is critical for me, because try as I might, corrrect Irish pronunciation continues to evade me and I find that I'm wrong about just as often as I'm right when it comes to my first swag at pronouncing a new word - consequently I dare not trust myself without an audible reference point.
For more advanced students of the language who have mastered correct pronunciation, I think this would be below their level. I would classify this as beginner to intermediate material with particularly good value as an audio reference.
Which dialect(s) are represented is simply beyond my ken, and I don't recall any mention being made in the software. To my amateur ear, there does seem to be a marked difference in pronunciation among the three speakers' voices that I've encountered so far in the program, and I strongly suspect this is because they are pronouncing words from the standpoint of different regional accents.
On Version 8 at least, the young woman's accent is, to my American ears, the stereotypical, strong, dramatic, "feisty" Irish accent. I love it. The older woman's accent seems far less pronounced, and I have a harder time understanding the man's accent. Unfortuantely I couldn't begin to tell you which is which.
As a beginner with a strong motivation to learn the language, fifty dollars for this would be well worth it to me. Of course if you can find it second-hand for significantly less, so much the better. :)
