1. Ní foláir dúinne, dá bhrí sin, cómhacht is treise ná cómhacht dhaonna do bheith ag cabhrú linn sa ghleic seo atá ag teacht orainn.

This seems to be another of those sentences like (ní fhéadfainn rud a bheith agam) where the subject changes!

2. We discussed "second comparatives" (fearrde, miste, liúide, siaide, móide, usaide, dóichíde, is nithe), but we were unsure if alll comparatives could become second comparatives by the addition of -de. Niamh has this:

B’fhéidir gur déinide a déanfar an guí an teachtaireacht do chur tímpall uaitse, a Árdrí.

Déinide was "déine-de" in the original. It is my own spelling to make this déinide. "Maybe the prayer will be prayed ALL THE HARDER for the message being circulated from you, High King".

I would think, though, that there were limits on this construction - ie, the longer and more convoluted an adjective, the less likely it would go well in this second comparative construction? "b'fhéidir gur neamhthuisceanaíde ' bheidh sé an chainnt sin ' aireachtaint uaitse"... probably doesn't work. I assume one or two syllable adjectives go better with -de.

quote:

This seems to be another of those sentences like (ní fhéadfainn rud a bheith agam) where the subject changes!

Indeed. Ó Sé, though, talks somewhere in his book of sentences in which there is a hiatus of some sort where the speaker hesitates or changes what he or she wants to say in mid sentence which could explain such anomalies in some circumstances. In the sentence you quote, however, we have an intervening compound preposition phrase "dá bhrí sin" which might explain the apparent switching of the subject.

quote:

I would think, though, that there were limits on this construction - ie, the longer and more convoluted an adjective, the less likely it would go well in this second comparative construction? "b'fhéidir gur neamhthuisceanaíde ' bheidh sé an chainnt sin ' aireachtaint uaitse"... probably doesn't work. I assume one or two syllable adjectives go better with -de.

I think in the modern language, its usage is limited but perhaps all adjectives could be constructed in such a fashion at one time in the history of the language?

Ó Cadhlaigh (section 389) says that that -de is very commonly used with an adjective in the comparative degree but says nothing of whether such usage extends to all adjectives.