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If you have resolved to get a better command of our native language in 2022 a new book from Ciara McCoy, Head of Irish in St Paul’s High School, Bessbrook should be just the thing! GCSE Irish Revision Workouts will help you take the next step in your journey. Although it is aimed at GCSE students it also serves as a fantastic resource for adult learners.
As President Michael D Higgins started 2021 by urging us to normalise the use of Irish in our lives and to “make a resolution to give it a place in our daily lives” many people will once again in 2022 be making a renewed effort to embrace their cúpla focal.
When you decide to learn Irish, you commit to attending classes either online or in person, you buy a few books, inevitably sign-up for Duolingo and become friends with the green owl. After a while you have the basics, you know your numbers, colours, how to have a basic conversation about yourself and your family and you may have even attended an adult Irish course in the Gaeltacht to improve your Irish.
If you have finished with the bunrang and are comfortable in meánrang, but not quite ready for the ardrang yet, this can be a difficult stage in the Irish language learning journey. Perhaps you had a good standard of Irish a while back and want to improve without having to start from scratch, or your children are at home preparing for their GCSE and A-Level Irish and you want to be able to help them out, this is the gap that this new book aims to fill.
There are plenty of resources and courses available for beginners but it can be hard to know how to improve your Irish at this level. Ciara noticed that a series of books from the Language Gym company were available in French, Spanish and German and she knew that they were making a big difference to the students in schools studying for their GCSE or embarking on an A-Level course in their chosen language. Ciara started working last year on adapting the resources available in other languages into Irish, in particular Ulster Irish. As a result, the GCSE Irish Revision Workouts book was born. Ciara felt it was only right that these resources were available in Irish too and to Irish learners.
The book is an excellent addition for adult learners as the answers are included in the book. With 15 chapters and over 180 pages, each chapter begins with a sentence builder to help learners familiarise themselves with common structures in Irish. Then there are pages of exercises which increase in difficulty to give learners a chance to practice new and old vocabulary and to become very familiar and confident with different common structures used in Irish. This extensive recycling of the key vocabulary and structures throughout the book means that learners become very confident in using these structures in a wide range of scenarios, resulting in a level of fluency in these structures.
The book is currently available to purchase on Amazon but Newry.ie readers can get a free sample unit and more information about the book by emailing gaeilgesb@gmail.com
If you haven't already you also should check out Newry.ie's Irish For All audio series in conjunction with Gaelarás Mhic Ardghail at /www.newry.ie/articles/irish-for-all
