From talking with some Irish speakers, it seems that they usually know how to say any Irish word they see, and how to spell anything they can say. But they don't know exactly why.

I suspect the rules of Irish spelling are actually easier than anything I've found in any book so far. The vowels in particular seems to have a simple pattern, maybe like this:

1. All fada vowels are pronounced.
2. Vowels immediately adjacent to fada vowels are silent.
3. Between a consonant and another vowel, e and i are silent, present only to slenderize the consonant:

fear, bean, leabhar, seomra, dearg -> silent e

feicim, eile, deir, cailin, uncail, abhainn, aimsir, bainne -> silent i

4. If both e and i are present, e is pronounced and i is silent.

Maybe those are not quite right, but does anyone know where I can find a small and elegant set of rules like this? What the smallest rule set that explains the most Irish spelling? It would really help beginners like me.

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2. Vowels immediately adjacent to fada vowels are silent.

not in uá, not always in ío...

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3. Between a consonant and another vowel, e and i are silent, present only to slenderize the consonant:

not always in io...

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feicim, eile, deir, cailin, uncail, abhainn, aimsir, bainne -> silent i

the i isn't silent in uncail, abhainn (in some dialects)...

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4. If both e and i are present, e is pronounced and i is silent.

not always, see "dein" in Munster, often pronounced "din".

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Maybe those are not quite right, but does anyone know where I can find a small and elegant set of rules like this? What the smallest rule set that explains the most Irish spelling? It would really help beginners like me.

In the book I started to write :-)