Brush up your school Irish

Why it feels like you've forgotten it all

School Irish was mostly about reading, writing and passing exams. You learned to recognise far more Irish than you ever said out loud, so years later it's still there in your head, but it won't come out of your mouth. That's passive knowledge, and it's the easiest kind to bring back: you're not learning, you're remembering.

So the fastest way back isn't more reading or grammar drills. It's speaking: short, regular, out loud, from day one.

What comes back first

Try these. You probably know more of them than you expect:

• An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas? (May I go to the toilet? Everyone remembers this one)
• Dia duit. Conas atá tú? (Hello. How are you?)
• Tá mé go maith, go raibh maith agat. (I'm well, thank you.)
• Is mise Seán. Is as Corcaigh mé. (I'm Seán. I'm from Cork.)
• Tá beagán Gaeilge agam. (I have a little Irish.)

Greetings, introducing yourself, the weather, family and food come back quickest, because you said them over and over in school. Start there, then build out to the past and future tenses.

A 30-day plan

1. Days 1 to 3: find your level. Take a placement check (Dúisigh has one built in) or skim a beginner course and note where it starts to feel new.
2. Days 4 to 10: speak every day. Ten minutes, out loud. Greetings, yourself, your family, the weather. Say every phrase, don't just read it.
3. Days 11 to 20: past and future. Inné and amárach: what you did yesterday and will do tomorrow. This is where conversations open up.
4. Days 21 to 30: talk to someone. A conversation circle, a Pop Up Gaeltacht night, or AI conversations in an app. Keep it short and don't worry about mistakes.

Alongside it, put TG4 or Raidió na Gaeltachta on for ten minutes a day. Understanding comes back with listening.

The grammar that trips people up

Séimhiú and urú

The changes at the start of words, like mo mháthair (my mother) and ár gcarr (our car), are what most people remember hating. Don't learn them as rules first. Learn them in phrases, and the patterns come back on their own. Dúisigh highlights each change as you meet it, with a short note on why it happened.

"Is" and "tá"

Irish has two verbs for "to be". Is múinteoir mé says what you are; Tá mé tuirseach says how you are. Getting this right makes you sound fluent quickly.

The verb comes first

Chuaigh mé go Gaillimh: "went I to Galway". Once that order feels normal again, sentences flow.

Phrases for when you get stuck

• Labhair go mall, le do thoil. (Speak slowly, please.)
• Abair arís é, le do thoil. (Say it again, please.)
• Cad is brí le…? (What does … mean?)
• Níl a fhios agam. (I don't know.)

Which Irish did you learn?

Schools teach Standard Irish (An Caighdeán), often with a teacher's own dialect mixed in, so you may have learned Conas atá tú? or Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? depending on where you went to school. Both are right. Our guide to the dialects explains the differences.

Common questions