Rating: 
Summary: Great course, as far as it goes
Review: An excellent and effective way of learning to speak and understand. Very inexpensive - worth much more. As another reviewer said, a 30-lesson course would be great. This 8 lesson course is very worthwhile, but limited in scope. I could have done without the last lesson's endless repetition of phrases for asking a lady to lunch, and "my place", "your place", or "the hotel", and instead would have preferred a simple listing of many more words, with pronunciation. Things like car, plane, bus, pub, shop, music, school, book... basic things, so we could then say "Where is the pub?", When is the bus?" A few useful phrases like "My name is ___", and "How do you say ____" And, as others have said, a written guide to go along with it would be very helpful - just a list of the words in English and Irish, to have a clue what they look like written out. Still, it's well worth getting, and going through several times.
Rating: 
Summary: A GOOD TOOL TO HELP UNDERSTAND IRISH (GAELIC)
Review: As a beginner you've probably already discovered that there are a large number of books, cassettes, and on-line resources available to help you understand, speak, and write Irish. I've been plugging along for about 30 days now with this CD (unabridged 4 disk set) and have found it very helpful - the repetition is great, but most important is simply hearing how the words sound. I have a few books and a pile of lessons I've got off the web and the most frustrating thing is that the phonetic spelling that accompanies the Irish word varies GREATLY from one resource to the next, which (at least for me) just created further confusion. I've seen Dia duit (Hello) phonetically spelled about 8 different ways - I finally thought I had it down until I heard this CD - of course I was wrong!
I wouldn't use this as your only resource, but it's a great way to pass the commute to work and a good item to have in your pile of learning resources, plus the price is great.Go raibh maith agat!
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT PURCHASE!!!
Review: Dia Dhuit um thranona, Is mise Brad. As previously noted, this set is in Munster Irish, which is not commonly used in Eire. Today, Connaught and Standardized Irish are the norm. The Munster dialect all but ignores certain peculiarities of the spoken Irish language. This will not only make your use of the language in conversation VERY limited but will also make it VERY difficult to understand any one else outside of the Southern portion of the Island. You will spend more time saying "Ni thuigim - I don't understand" (a phrase which Pimsleur believes takes over 6 lessons for you to remember)and you probably will use this phrase A LOT if you try to use this as your main dialect while abroad. Pimsleur should use only Connaught - the truest form of Irish, or standardized Irish as their basis for instruction. As an example this set teaches the pronunciation of the word here - anseo as "an-suh." Anywhere else the word is pronounced "An-shaw." The pronuounciation of the "se" constanant combination is ignored outright. I'm VERY dissapointed I bought this set and DO NOT encourage anyone else to purchase it. Slan go foill
Rating:
Summary: Very good for learning by listening
Review: First, I have to confess that I belong to those who prefer to
learn a language by reading it - not just by listening. But if
you want to learn by listening this is indeed the course for you.
It is comprehensive and easy to use and you will be able to
communicate in Irish after fulfilling it. As someone who has lived in Ireland and speak rather fluent Irish I would like to point out that the other reviewers are absolutely right when they say that this course teaches Munster Irish. It is one of the three major Irish dialects and as good a choice as any other dialect. Considering the fact that there already exits courses in the other dialects I'd say it's a wise choice to use Munster Irish. Besides, most famous Irish writers came from Munster and wrote in Munster Irish. Since Brad has had some comments about Munster Irish I'd like to correct them. Munster Irish is NOT a minor dialect, it is still a living language which is widely taught both in schools and in courses for adults and foreigners. What Brad terms "Connaught Irish" (sic!) is a number of different dialects. A course could very well be based upon one of these dialect (The excellent course "Learning Irish" is just that) but they are neither more nor less correct or appropriate. I've lived in Ireland, both in areas where Munster Irish and Cois Fhairrge Irish (=what Brad calls "Connaught Irish") are spoken and I can promise that there are no problems with mutual comprehension, nor would the Irish speakers in these two areas understand Brad's comments about Munster. All three major Irish dialect (Munster, Connacht and Ulster) are equal, and there are courses in all of them. Pimsleur is a conversational course in Munster Irish and it does a pretty good job of giving the beginner a basic foundation of Irish.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for the infrequent tourist; incomplete for the devout.
Review: I bought this CD because it looked like the best of my choices that were available at the bookstore at the time. I had searched for online resources and found that some great resources had disappeared on the web. I wanted to learn fluent Irish and I thought this would be my introduction. My stumbling block came when I was trying to comprehend the huge number of variations on the dialects as represented by the online pronunciation guides and as spoken on these tapes. I was not able to finish the tapes primarily as a result of the anseo and ansin discrepencies spoken on this set. Every other resource I had found stated that "se" or "si" made the "s" sound slender and consequently should be pronounce "sh" but Pimsleur pronounces it as a broad "s". Well, I probably wouldn't have worried much about this dialect variation, except that I was wanting to be able to read Irish as well as speak it. Know that if this CD is your only resource, you will learn to speak some Irish and understand a bit of some spoken Irish, but you will graduate from Pimsleur not being able to read a single street sign. I spent a good deal of my time trying to hunt down the words that I was hearing on the CD, and just the simple confusing "anseo" or "anso" (the latter is the expected spelling from the pronunciation on the CD) rendered me lost and confused. I have just picked up Ó Sé's book and have discovered that what was sounding like "an Troid Voor" on Pimsleur is actually spelled "an Tsráid Mhór", which if you see it spelled will help in the pronunciation greatly. My biggest hurdle came with the 8 ways that Dia dhuit could be pronounced by comparing the online pronunciations with this CD. Again, Ó Sé's book cleared up my confusion with the explanation on the slender "d" and the slender "t" and how that becomes the "j" and "tch" sounds in some dialects. This CD will not provide any understanding of the subtle nuances of the language. If you are an English speaker learning Irish, you will come away from this CD with a strong English accent. Yes, I want to see what I am learning, not just hear and repeat. A language is both written and spoken, and any course should provide for both. You should see some of the words I came up with trying to write out what Pimsleur's performers were saying on the CD! I am glad to have moved to a primarily written course after struggling through this CD. I bought the UNabridged CD.
Rating:
Summary: Muster dialect Irish, and no text
Review: I found this product to be useful, but you need to know 2 things that I did not prior to my buying it. 1. It is the Munster dialect of Irish (one of the 3 primary dialects), and uses some words which not in the other 2 dialects(but are widely used in Munster Irish). The pronunciation of several other words are unique to Muster as well. 2. There is NO TEXT WHATSOEVER. No transcript. Nothing but the 4 tapes. I contacted the publisher, and they told me that it is a violation of the Pimsleur method to provide any text whatsoever. Hmmm. Okay. If you say so. But I did like the style of going over the material again and again. Drilling the phrases. This process is lacking in the other Irish language products I have purchased. And I have purchased just about every one on the market.
Rating:
Summary: These tapes are fantastic
Review: I just finished listening to and learning the 8 lessons in the Pimsleur Irish Basic Course. It is fantastic. Like all the Pimsleur programs, they take plenty of time to help you with pronunciation. (You'll need it with Irish.)Yet, they still move along quickly, teaching you more and more each lesson. The only downer was when I reached the end of Tape 8 and realized there was no more. I ENCOURAGE ANYONE WHO LIKES THIS COURSE TO WRITE SIMON & SCHUSTER AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO PRODUCE A FULL 30-LESSON COMPREHENSIVE IRISH COURSE. Irish is a fascinating language, and this is, without a doubt, the best way to tackle learning it.
Rating:
Summary: Very good for learning by listening
Review: I work at the TX Renaissance Festival; my character is a bossy Irishwoman. I thought it would add to my character's personality to be able to speak and understand a little bit of the language. While it has always been relatively easy for me to learn to read foreign languages (except for Irish, mind you), trying to speak and understand spoken language has been difficult, since I am one of those people who needs to *see* and *read* what I am learning. This set of CDs is the best set I have discovered yet for learning the Irish language (or any language): you learn bit by bit, like a child learns the language. Other tapes repeat a phrase and then go right on to the next new phrase. This set of CDs not only takes each phrase and teaches it to you word-by-word, but throughout the entire program, it reviews what you learned in the previous lessons. Very helpful for me! By the time this year's renfaire comes around, I will be able to speak *and* understand basic Irish, regardless of the dialect! Not only will that be great for my Irish character, but I have every intention of travelling to Ireland one day, and these CDs will have helped me overcome my basic fear of trying to understand what I am hearing by the locals! Pimsleur rocks! Irish rocks!
Rating:
Summary: I'm learning Irish, regardless which dialect!
Review: I work at the TX Renaissance Festival; my character is a bossy Irishwoman. I thought it would add to my character's personality to be able to speak and understand a little bit of the language. While it has always been relatively easy for me to learn to read foreign languages (except for Irish, mind you), trying to speak and understand spoken language has been difficult, since I am one of those people who needs to *see* and *read* what I am learning. This set of CDs is the best set I have discovered yet for learning the Irish language (or any language): you learn bit by bit, like a child learns the language. Other tapes repeat a phrase and then go right on to the next new phrase. This set of CDs not only takes each phrase and teaches it to you word-by-word, but throughout the entire program, it reviews what you learned in the previous lessons. Very helpful for me! By the time this year's renfaire comes around, I will be able to speak *and* understand basic Irish, regardless of the dialect! Not only will that be great for my Irish character, but I have every intention of travelling to Ireland one day, and these CDs will have helped me overcome my basic fear of trying to understand what I am hearing by the locals! Pimsleur rocks! Irish rocks!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but could be better...
Review: In one of the other reviews above, someone commented on the over repeating of words--if you are like me, you need exactly that. I really liked the constant reviewing of words in this course. Many courses introduce a word and then it's never seen or heard again--that's silly. Using that method, you will remember that word for all of 10 seconds. You've got to keep using the word to remember it--these CD's do a nice job of that. Overall, I liked the course. My complaints are: There really should be, at least an optional written manual. Seems kind of silly to ignore the written Irish language--it puts you at quite a disadvantage when you want to "see" what you've learned. The other complaint is that it is too short and brief--what's there is great, but it would be nice to continue with about 30 more CD's! I've noticed the dialect differences with other courses, mentioned by some of the other reviewers. I find the dialect on these CD's to be very pleasant (pretty) compared to that spoken on the other courses. I wish they were all in this dialect! Overall, I think these CD's are worth the nominal cost. They are nice to pop in every once in a while after going through them, just for review.
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