God save all here!
There had been some earlier discussions about the type of Irish spoken in Leinster and I found something in "Irish Dialects Past and Present" (T.F. O'Rahilly)about the subject. I quote:
"Both dialects [Ulster and Munster] gave proof of great inherent vigour and power of expansion...Southern Irish spread over nearly half the country, and covered an area about once and a half as big as that of the Ulster dialect. Between them they divided the country, Connacht excepted...The two protagonists had themselves come to close quarters in the north of Leinster. The Ulster dialect has pushed as far south as the lower Boyne, between Navan and Drogheda; while in the district watered by the upper Boyne Southern Irish was spoken, as, for instance, at Edenderry. The linguistic battle was, as we know, never fought to a finish, for it was terminated by the triumph of the common enemy, English."

seafoid!!!!

Isn't it seafóid?
"Sometimes I Feel Like A Fada-less Vowel"

quote:

"Sometimes I Feel Like A Fada-less Vowel"

Phléasc mé amach ag gáire! An tusa a chum é sin?

Is mise a chum é.

Go méadaigh dia thú!

I suppose I should have said that T.F. O'Rahilly comments were rubbish!! What I meant was that ireland consisted of over 200 seperate kingdoms at one time and each may have had their own version of gaelic. Ulster irish had a large no. of forms, if you take antrim irish the similarities with scots gaelic are striking. The irish of antrim was quite difernt to that of doneagal for instance with its use of "Cha and chan" etc. In the north of the country you had the kingdom of oriel which was comprised of parts of modern day ulster and leinster. South of the liffey into wicklow there seems to have been a hybrid between northern irish forms and southern irish. Further south into wexford the language seemed to be more similar to the irish of ring. The Wexford accent and that from west of the hook is to be heard in the glorious analgam of Nova Scotian!! that of course is not to forget Ossary irish. If you hear the accent of someone from Louth and someone from Offaly I think it illustrates the point. Like I said the word rubbish with or with out the fada probably was too strong but Ive heard this guy before and he seemed to earn a trade by making generalisations. That said we can all do that.

O'Rahilly's conclusions were based on the spellings of place names, surnames, written materials from various regions of Ireland. By the time systematic investigation of the dialects by linguists was initiated many areas of Ireland had lost their Irish. The Irish of Inishowen was similar to East Ulster in several aspects. Rathlin Island had a population replacement and spoke Scottish Gaelic. Oriel Irish survived longest in Louth and Monaghan and there are records of the dialect (my great-grandfather was from Farney and spoke Oriel Irish). From what I have read Ring (Déise) Irish was spoken from Waterford to Clare not Wexford. There are examples of Kilkenny Irish and it resembles Munster Irish. Nova Scotian? You lost me on that one. You have made quite a few questionable generalizations yourself with no references.

Well Ive allready said everyone generalises in the last line of my comment. Deise irish was spoken in the Sliabh gceal gcua region comprising of Waterford and south Tipperary see (Labhras O Cadhla- RTE records)I have seen no evidence of Waterford irish being spoken as far as Clare! The pronunciation of deise irish is differnt in many aspects to other western forms of munster irish. It should also be noted that a poem attributed to one of the east cork poets about Bishop Stafford from Wexford was probably written in south wexford irish. The last native speaker having died in Rathnure in the early 1900's (Furlong). The Kilkenny or Ossary irish that most people refer to comes about s a result of Humphrey O Sullivans book. This man was from Kerry originally I think and learnt his irish there. If you want to read east ulster or Oriel Irish you have the poems of Art Mac Cooey and the songs of east ulster. A woman called Hanlon wrote an excellent book on it recently.

In Waterstone in BÁC last time I was there, there was a book on Kilkenny Irish words

Laois and Offaly, you mean?