availability of Irish books

stephanus

My sweetheart is going to Ireland in November. I am already thinking of things he could bring me back and my first and foremost desire is of course that of books in Irish.

Is it hard to find books in Irish in the ordinary bookshop in Ireland or would that need a specialised shop or one of extraordinary size?

Coincidentally, he is going to Mullranny, Westport, which is right on the border of a Gaeltacht, if my geographical knowledge has not left me altogether. Does that make his task (:D) easier?

deise go deo

stephanus wrote: »

My sweetheart is going to Ireland in November. I am already thinking of things he could bring me back and my first and foremost desire is of course that of books in Irish.

Is it hard to find books in Irish in the ordinary bookshop in Ireland or would that need a specialised shop or one of extraordinary size?

Coincidentally, he is going to Mullranny, Westport, which is right on the border of a Gaeltacht, if my geographical knowledge has not left me altogether. Does that make his task (:D) easier?

They can be hard to find, Being close to a Gaelthacht would make it easier but the selection will be very limited if they are there at all. There is a website, Litriocht.ie which has a good selection of books as gaeilge, they will deliver them to you through the post to wherever you live
(including overseas).

Gael

stephanus wrote: »

My sweetheart is going to Ireland in November. I am already thinking of things he could bring me back and my first and foremost desire is of course that of books in Irish.

Is it hard to find books in Irish in the ordinary bookshop in Ireland or would that need a specialised shop or one of extraordinary size?

Coincidentally, he is going to Mullranny, Westport, which is right on the border of a Gaeltacht, if my geographical knowledge has not left me altogether. Does that make his task (:D) easier?

The average bookshop in Ireland would have very few Irish books (if any) except maybe a few exercise books for learners, dictionaries etc. Though large shops like Eason's or Siopa Leabhar Chonradh na Gaeilge on Harcourt Street in Dublin would have a good selection. But your best bet is the internet for a large selection. Other sites where you can buy Irish books besides the one mentioned by deise go deo are www.cic.ie/index_english.asp, www.udar.ie, http://kennys.ie/ and you'd get some on amazon too. There's even old second hand ones that are out of print and hard to get on ebay as well.

Poll Dubh

'The Bookshop' in Westport town has a good selection. There are some children's books in Sweeneys 'Siopa Cladaigh' in Achill Sound. Nothing to be had in Mallaranny.

craoltoir

www.litriocht.com
www.cuplafocal.ie
www.udar.ie
www.siopagaeilge.ie

dlofnep

Any major bookstore will stock Irish books.

deise go deo

dlofnep wrote: »

Any major bookstore will stock Irish books.

You will get some but there wont be a great selection. Online is the best bet.

Aard

If he's in Dublin, Hodges Figgis on Dawson St near Trinity College has a decent selection. Both course books and novels.

stephanus

I almost thought so. Looks like I have to take a trip to Dublin myself.

I have browsed around litriocht already but my Irish is not yet strong enough to really be able to understand which is which and I am afraid of ordering a washing machine instead of a book. :rolleyes:

If there is at least some selection in any old bookshop that'll do. Mo chroí won't know how to handle Irish books anyway so he will take what he can lay hands on. Only asking because he might want to bring me something back ... And the book shan't be for pleasure reading anyway but for reading and rereading it several times to get some routine in the language.

It's good you mentioned children's books because I like to use them in learning a foreign language.

Thanks also for the other links which I am going to look at and use once I'm more fluent at the language.

cantalach

Liam Russel's bookshop on Oliver Plunkett St in Cork has a good selection of Irish books packed into a very small space.

Gael

stephanus wrote: »

I have browsed around litriocht already but my Irish is not yet strong enough to really be able to understand which is which and I am afraid of ordering a washing machine instead of a book. :rolleyes:

Although litriocht.com is primarily in Irish, they give descriptions of all the books in English underneight the Irish description. If you buy an Irish book in a shop, it's highly likely there will be no English description on it at all.