I'm an American and grew up with the language through my family. I only speak it to my children. I love to see it growing here.

I was making tacos the other evening, opened the fridge and said "Cá bhfuil an salsa?" (Don't know if there's a Gaeilge word for it.) Was terribly pleased an Irish-ish sentence flew out of my mouth without thinking, but after two years I'm nowhere near as fluent at any of those folks. I'm inspired to keep trying. Go raibh maith agat, Clare; love these language videos.

I saw the title and before watching it I just thought NO 🤣🤣🤣 most of us in Ireland struggle with it. Very impressed by these people. I'm starting a gaelgeoir course in work soon. Very important to me to become fluent

I am another Irish-American that is learning Irish. I first heard of the Irish language when I was wandering through the library in high school (sometime around 1997) and saw a book that I think was put out by the Irish Government about the decline of the Irish language. I listened to Radio na Gaeltacht every now and then mostly to learn the sounds of the language, but I didn't really find a way to study Irish until last summer. I am using some Irish around my kids, but mostly the only thing they have learned is how to count to 3 because I count in Irish when I am cooking with them. I told them the slender r at the end of cathair is hard to pronounce, so they refuse to even try to say it. My 5 year old counts with me as 'a haon, a do, a tri, four'. We watched a video about the potato famine when I was explaining why my ancestors left Ireland for one of their family history projects and my 5 year old is obsessed with it - any time he hears about anything bad happening he says 'well, at least it's not as bad as the potato famine' and he wants a children's book about the famine that he can have as his bedtime story every night. One of the hard parts about learning Irish is that most of the material is developed by native English speakers instead of native Irish speakers. Anglo-Irish is rapidly becoming the dominant dialect of the language. I've often seen descriptions of Irish that claim there is no difference between broad and slender for b, c, p, and g, but I have even seen some places that are teaching Irish claim that broad and slender t and d are pronounced the same way, reducing the broad and slender distinction to only s and ch. It is also hard to find a good source for learning native Irish idioms instead of translated English idioms.

Thanks again for having me on, Clare. I definitely have so much to learn, but I'm glad that other Americans like me are trying to learn this lovely language.

In Nova Scotia there are between 1-2 thousand Gaelic speakers. The first time I ever heard about this language was when a was seventeen in a high English class. My teacher told us a story about when his car broke down when vacationing in Nova Scotia and the closest house he was able to find the little old woman who had answered the the door didn't know a word of English and only spoke Irish. A lot of acting out his car broke down and needed to use the phone. Thankfully he was able to communicate what he needed without ticking her off and eventually she did invite him in the house while he waited for the tow truck.

You should zoom with my son. He’s almost fluent ‘as Gaeilge’ & teaches Irish to about 20 people in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s a young lawyer & moved last year to Alice Springs, hence he teaches over zoom. He learnt mostly on Inis Meáin. He also started pop-up Gaeltachts in Adelaide 😃

As an American trying to learn irish I need what these people use to learn 💚

Go raibh maith agat, a Clare. Thank you for including me in your video. It was great to see other speakers in North America. Cheers to Matt Stocaí Bána! Is breá liom an físeán a rinne tú. Nár laga Dia thú!

I can really relate to a lot of these people in their reasoning for learning Irish. I definitely think Duolingo needs to expand some of its example sentences, because as the one guy said when are you ever going to use Itheann an madra roimh an sionnach lol That being said, I'm at the "Travel" "Numbers" and "Language" section of duolingo currently and that seems to a bit more broad with the examples.I would totally go to the Gaeltacht here in Ontario, but it's 4-5 hours from where I live and events are only certain times of year. I could go on but then you'd be reading for ages! Go raibh maith agat as an bhfíseán seo a dhéanamh

My husband is teaching our 2yr old daughter some Irish. She loves watching your videos of teaching people to curse in Irish

My great-uncle was a native speaker of Irish in Norwood, Massachusetts. His parents were from Kerry. He was the last gaeilgeoir in my family, he died nearly two decades ago now. Gaeilge has had as tragic a history as the Irish themselves. My ancestors came here mostly from the modern day Gaeltachtaí but back then Irish was spoken all over the west and that's where the famine hurt the most. An Gorta Mór killed the Irish language. I've been watching you for years, thank you so much for what you've done for our language. Go raibh míle maith agat agus slán abhaille, a chara

Great video! Is as Meiriceá mé agus labhraím Gaeilge. Aww I'm Irish American and I'm learning Irish! That dude is right about DuoLingo's weird sentences! Lol. Itheann an madra roimh an sionnach! My personal favorite and most useful sentences are: "Íocann an madra don chat" (The dog pays for the cat) and "Labhraíonn an fia Gaeilge" (The deer speaks Irish). I feel so prepared now lol. I appreciate this video and hearing some new resources to explore on my Irish language journey. Go raibh maith agaibh!

Go hiontach ar fad gach duine ansin. Tá sé an-tábhactach ár dteanga a úsáid agaus a shábháil. Níl mé líofa in aon chor, ach táim ceart go leor ceapaim. Ár dteanga, ár gcultúr gan amhras😁🇮🇪

This video actually really warmed my heart - in a country where I feel the language that is being taught here is being pushed towards being more and more redundant and hated by it's own speakers it's fabulous that there are so many people that don't even live in Ireland that are making such a beautiful effort

Here I am preparing for my Irish leaving cert oral tomorrow 👍🤲🏿

I'm in a medieval reenactment group, and that was definitely part of the reason I started learning Irish. We often win calligraphied scrolls. I wanted to be able to write them as would have been done then, or as close as possible. The more I learned the history of my ancestors, and what happened to the language and why, the more resolute I grew to learn as much as I could, and share it as much as I can.

This makes me feel much better about my own ability in Irish, which is A level if you're being very charitable. My problem is I don't have anyone to practise with and it's a huge demotivator for me. But hey, I'm in Boston, so there's got to be a community out there that I can join to improve my Irish for sure. And I'm proud of the fact that I'm the first person in my family to be able to hold even that much of a simple conversation like the ones toward the end of the video in over a century. Just gotta keep improving so I can pass it onto the next generation someday.

I'm a little bit embarrassed because as a dual citizen of the US and Ireland I spent half my life in both. They spoke more complete sentences than I could now. I lost a lot of it when the older generations in my family passed away we just never kept up with it. I would like to start relearning again. I can probably only say phrases now

It's part of my heritage. I have my great grandfather's discharge papers from the English army where it said complexion: Irish. When I worked at an Irish Pub with a chef from Kerry is when I started learning the language. It's a beautiful thing.

I love that you sought out non-Ireland Irish speakers! I've been trying to learn for several years. I've gone through the DuoLingo course, Rosetta stone, FutureLearn, and some zoom conversational and grammar classes by my localish Irish Centre. I am nowhere near fluent, but I could hold my own as long as everyone spoke go mall agus go soiléir!

Really enjoyed this video SO much! I've been relearning French on Duolingo for a little over 2 years, and one "blurb" that pops up all the time is that more people are learning Irish on Duolingo right now than there are total number of Irish speakers in Ireland. 😲 For the longest time, I always thought that people were taught Irish, Scottish, and Welch alongside English until they graduated so that everyone had some basic level of fluency, and depending on where a person lived they would primarily speak either the native language or English depending on what was the most prevalent for that area. How naive was I for that! I have heard that Irish is taught up to a point, but I really hope that native languages (for any nation, including the numerous Native American languages aka American Indian languages) are taught to a level where at least 80% of the people of those lands speak it so that the languages don't die off. Sláinte! ~Be Blessed

Your hair looks SO nice in this video!

I was just in County Mayo yesterday. It's a beautiful place and I really like the architecture.

I've been working as a private tutor for Irish for over a year now and I would say the US is definitely the biggest market for me.

I’ve heard that about some of the language learning apps books etc that theyre good at some stuff but not great at conjugation and the grammar can be hit or miss. Also it’s harder if you don’t have a fairly common environment to practice it in. It’s easier to learn mandarin because you can just walk to Chinatown and there’s tons of people to talk to. But if you don’t have the community to practice with it’s like 100x harder.

Because of hearing loss I'm not nearly as good as speaking Irish as reading and writing Irish. I am however fluent in Galway Dialect Irish Sign Language.

Duolingo helps me keep things fresh, but as all these folks highlighted - meeting speakers, classes, listening, and reading - all needed elements if you want to get out of just the bits Duolingo offers

I've been studying Irish for about 8 months (primarily using Duolingo). It's amazing how you can start to feel like you're getting the hang of it, then you pull up lyrics to some of your favorite Irish-language songs and realize that 90% of it are conjugations and phrasing that you've never seen before. It's great motivation to keep you humble and staying true to your studies haha. My goal is to someday come across a new Irish song and actively understand the lyrics without looking them up.

I’ve been learning Irish for a couple years but have the same problems as a lot of these people, especially the guy who said he doesn’t get to speak to many people. Also, Matt from the video is my cousin and I had no idea he was learning too!

What a lovely video! Thank you so much for making it.

Absolutely amazing video!! I have been a fan of you and TRY channel for a while. As a second-generation Irish American, I love to watch you guys and learn about your fascinating culture. I have waned to learn Irish for a while, and I think this was just the motivation I needed! Thank you so much for all the great things you have taught me and for the many laughs that helped get me through hard times, keep up the awesome work, you're an amazing person!

Hey Clare ! I really cherish this video and the Irish language 🇮🇪 I am so happy to get another chance to watch a UKposts content about the language and people using Irish ☘️ this is stunning and keep it . I am going to support you

Want to thank you for this an all your other videos in and about Irish. I stumbled upon your channel doing research for a family trip to Ireland this summer when started Irish on Duolingo and I look for forward to using some of the resources provided in this video to keep my lessons up! I’m just an Irish-American language nerd and it’s been a joy to explore both a unique language while doing a tiny part to keep it alive. Also these videos are super helpful for hearing real spoken Irish.

Bhuel, is as Dún na nGall mo mháthair agus is as Cìll Rónáin mo sheanmháthair. Rugadh i Montréal mé agus tógadh lasmuigh de Philadelphia. Tá feabhas tagtha ar mo chuid Gaeilge, ach tá feabhas ag teastáil fós.

This is such a cool video! Super well edited, the switching between clips was very natural. And really cool to hear stories of people deciding to learn about their heritage, or just learn a new language that they find interesting. I agree with the fabulous lady from Chicago that it is sad that irish is a minority language in its own country, so it warms my heart to hear stories of people trying to learn it and intending to forward it to their children.

I first started down the road to learning Irish from the Irish language books my mom had bought for us as kids. I never really did much with it until High School. I spend a few months attending Gormanston College on an exchange program. I pick up a few phrases and limited Vocabulary. but I only started in Ernest with the pandemic and needing a new hobby to occupy my time. Now I am working on the rules of conjugation and the like.

Ar fheabhas! Thanks so much for having me on, it was an honor!

When I finish with Danish, I want to learn Irish as well to keep it alive

I spent 3 months while working at a library here in the states trying to learn irish. I picked up basic greetings, how are you and one or two other small bits but with no one to practice with and the insane way things are spelled I never got farther than that. Also...why is grandmother some incredibly long word that in no way sounds like it looks.....but cat is still cat.

Enjoyed this video. I'm taken aback from Karen in Chicago. What an amazing and inspiring woman.

I don't have any Irish in my lineage, but I love languages and I love seeing people with Irish heritage learning about their roots and really immersing themselves in the language. It's a complete shame if the Irish language were to die out because of disinterest. From what I've personally seen, this has happened with non-Western tribes all over the world among the descendants of those tribes now living in the Americas. Awesome video, Clare.

You should do Australia and NZ too. There are a few of us here. Although when it arrived here it was referred to as "Gaelic" in English and the name has stuck.

This was interesting to see. I'm American but have Irish heritage. I started Duolingo not long ago just to get started in Irish and then at some point I'm hoping to use other resources to learn more. I love genealogy and learning about my ancestors so that's part of the interest in learning the language. Some day I would absolutely love to go to Ireland. 🖤 Thanks for the video!

Your video inspired me to learn a language. Thanks for your video!

One of the best vlogs yet.

Everyone sounds so good! I'm going to up my studies this year!

Just started! Cool to see others doing the same.

My grandfather spoke fluent irish and never taught me or my father 🙃

Clisare this was AMAZING!! I have been wanting to learn Irish for awhile now but haven’t taken the dive in to it yet. I have actually looked up classes though now and I am excited to start sometime in the very near future. EEK! This is exciting and terrifying lol Well done you! 🤓

Great video! Inspiring me to continue my studies of this lovely lingo, my children are learning 4 languages at the minute, only fluent in English as of yet, but progress is being made elsewise. ☘☘☘

Wow thanks for this so many of you are expressing the same feelings I felt when I started learning Irish my friends were like why you learning Irish isn’t it like a dead language agus briste é mo chroi but after hearing you on this I know there are others out there like me thank you.

My high school had the option of having Gaelic for a language class, instead of French or English. They went with Scottish Gaelic because I live in New Scotland (Nova Scotia).

Really, really recommend the Michel Thomas Method CDs, they're excellent! Two teachers take you through the grammar and structure of the language step by step in a very clear and lively way. I honestly don't think I could have got anywhere at all with Irish if I hadn't come across them. Don't even think of starting to learn Irish without them!!🙂

Okay, I gotta get back on it again. I started teaching myself Irish off and on after I started Irish dance as a kid. I went to a bookstore at the mall and bought an Irish-English dictionary and Micheal O'Siadhail’s Learning Irish cassettes ahaha. At least with Irish dance you get some random basics (except for all the people who say feises instead of feiseanna), but only the people who want to teach in Ireland have to pass an Irish language portion of the certificate. I always wanted to study that part just to see if I could do it.

I was shocked to hear that the Irish language is spoken in the minority in Ireland and really had no idea. With my mother being Irish and my father being Sicilian, I was exposed to both cultures and was always interested in the Gaelic Irish. Extremely interesting! All the best!

This was a great video!!

I love this, thank you so much😃

Táim ag foghlaim an Caighdeán Oifigiúil ar Duolingo cúig bhliain ó shin. Tá a fhios agam gur tá sé ró-bunúsach ach we all gotta start somewhere, right? 😊 I learned last month that not only is Irish an teanga náisiúnta of Poblacht na hÉireann, but is also now a fully official, working EU language on equal status with the other 23 official EU languages as of January 1, 2022. Of course it remains to be seen if this contributes meaningfully to the survival/growth of Irish in the long term.

Thank you Clisare, this video is so cool! Go raibh maith agat! From California

Great video! I believe you were pleasantly surprised.

I love that alot of people bringing back the Language.

I'm learning Irish too. Greetings from Colombia

Sadly I've fallen off of Duolingo. I really want to learn Irish, if only to ask the REALLY important questions like "Ar mhúch tú an téitheoir tumoideachais?" (I'm not even certain if that's correct or not) XD hope you're well.

My wife & I- especially her- have had to learn a lot of common phrases in many languages. She being a Department of Defense programmer has been sent to many nations to consult. I had French mumbley-mumbely years ago, but not as intense as she's had to go through. I remember when she was assigned to NATO headquarters in Belgium she bought a phrase book, and I idly thumbed through it. When I was studying languages back in the 1970s, phrase books didn't include things like "Your clothes would look nice in a pile next to the bed". But I was gratified to see the book also had "My hovercraft is full of eels.".

Go raibh maith agat. This video was great for me to find and hear of some other resources. My wife and I are teaching ourselves Gaeilge in Oregon, US. Largely leaning on Duolingo and holy glob do I want to like Kickstarter you and other speakers to beef up that course and voices. For example I also study German and all the different duo characters have distinct voices. Gaeilge deserves that love! I know not all eggs should be in that basket but I'd still love to see it and support the effort. People should get paid for voicework!

Im only a couple months into my journey, and its so wonderful to see other Irish-Americans learning and speaking the language. I also learned something new today, and plan to order the badges as i progress. Id only be a lt the Cúpla focail at the moment, but i feel like i might move on to the Fáinne Airgid within the next year if i can find a practice partner at the pace im learning. My late mother had such a love for her irish heritage, and instilled said love into my own heart. I hope to make her proud. Go raibh maith agat!

Is breá liom é. This is a fascinating watch. I'm learning from the Birmingham Irish Association and Gaeilge Gan Stró.

American here. I speak English and a fair bit of Spanish. I started learning Gaeilge because I fell in love with Irish folk songs. According to a DNA test and family stories, our people came from Ireland, Scotland, Britain and Scandinavia. I'm a singer and it was driving me crazy that I couldn't sing along to these wonderful songs! I also happen to be a writer and have started researching Ireland history(damn our ancestors went through some rough shit) and plan to eventually write a Selkie fantasy-romance. I hope to visit Ireland and Scotland in the future. It makes me really happy to see how many other people are learning or have learned this interesting and beautiful language.

Dude, i live in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the USA and I've been studying Gaeilge for the past 3 months. Duolingo here as well.

This was such an interesting vlog!!! Thanks Clare for all the work you put in to put this together, it's great seeing our national language being spoken internationally!!! Please consider joining Clare's Patreon, she isn't joking about all the great benefits Patreons get. Plus it really supports Clare in creating really good and interesting content like this vid💚💚☘️☘️☘️

I was born and raised in Waterford and came to Australia at 18 and at 56 I still regret not really taking any notice of Irish in school…it was not taught very welll..sort of forced on us and we rebelled… but now I do see the value of knowing how to speak your native language which my grandfather would have spoke as his first language as a boy. I wonder if it was a deliberate…thing… to Indoctrinate us to not like our language by outside influences…. There was never any joy in Irish classes but just the will to tune out… but now I regret it. I hope the new generations coming up are given a better understanding and a opportunity to learn without beating them over the head with it.

This makes me really happy to see, especially after having my confidence stomped into the mud after being told I'm not Irish or Slovakian since I'm not from there...

Great video!

my goal is to learn enough phrases and words to comment better to you and some of the other Irish contributors that i follow as well as my sister in law (from Derry), her mum and family

You were amazing!!!!❤

"Tá beagan Geailge agam, ach níl mé líofa." I love the language, it's beautiful (tá sé go hiontach). I am american of mostly irish descent (Have some Scottish, Norwegian, and Ashkenazi too!). Its really sad that the language is not used by those who have it. Got the English to blame for that one. Either way I hope to be fluent enough to teach my children if I even get lucky enough to have them. But it's a language very much worth saving. Jax, Phoenix, AZ

This was cool to watch. A shame I didn't find it until a year later.

I went to Ireland, the first time, in 1979. I bought the Buntus Cainte BOOKS, without the tapes. I finally returned in 2022. I bought the whole Buntus Cainte again, with the CDs. I also bought many children's books a Celtic drum, Tin Whistle, and two other Irish language sets. I was able to make it into the Gaeltacht in Galway, to Lurgen, on the first day of class. I also drove through the Munster Gaeltacht, without knowing it. I stopped in Macroom for the Mozzarella at the Buffalo Farm. It was all so great. I want to get back. I need to go to Skellig Michil and see the Puffins. I really need to work on my Irish. I practice with my grandson, who thinks I'm insane. I bought him a leprechaun doll, (Seamus), to help him learn to speak "LEPRECHAUN". He currently speaks Spanish, at his parents request. It is good to speak more than one language. I was hoping his mother would learn five languages. She speaks English and Spanish. Maybe her son will learn five. I can only hope, and try to make it easier.

Irish learners in northeast US, I surprisingly saw this mentioned only once in the above comments but the organization Daltaí na Gaeilge offers immersion weekends in PA & NY several times a year (& a week in summer!), it's a very welcoming environment w/lots of craic, great teachers, often from Éirinn, many fluent speakers in regular attendance, often a weekend will be +/- 100 strong, & the fee would just about cover 2 nights in your average motel. Hit us up! Also local groups thtoughout the region hold smaller events including online classes & conversation circles. Leanaigí ar aghaidh, maith sibh, agus An Ghaeilge Abu!

The lady who is speaking Irish is amazing

My dearly departed stepfather ,Dr. Daniel Duffy would marvel at this! Save the language! It is more precious than gold,truly.

I have Irish ancestry on both sides of my family and love Irish music and the sound of the language. That, and as I get older and keep doing crazy things, I keep finding a need to know a secret language that hardly anybody else in the world knows, to do coded messages with. Irish fits this bill and I aim to study it more.

This is was really interesting to hear and that lady from Chicago sounds like she should be on tg4!!

Can you do a video on writing the Irish alphabet? Is the insular alphabet taught in school in Ireland? How about Irish cursive handwriting? Thanks. 😁

Chicago too :D dad's side from Limerick and mom's side from Cork.

At 7:43 did she definitely mean "free" rather than "cheap enough" for "saor go leor, déarfainn"?

Good man! Children’s books are great.

I'm from the US and I grew up speaking some words of something other than English. I guess I should learn Irish and see if that's what it was. I think it was some kind of scotch Irish slang, mainly because I've met other people of Irish descent who use the same words, no clue how to spell it tho, did manage to learn that one word was Scottish. So who knows. I pretty much stopped speaking whatever it was when I went to school be cause the other kids couldn't understand me and thought I was weird.

Ay, the video I _wasn't_ in because my schedule was hell 😅 Maith thú!

Irish is such a beautiful language to listen to, but I can't find anyone to practice with, and it's difficult! I love your videos because they're a good lesson in how Irish people speak English as well. This is biased, but I think Irish slang is more fun than British slang.

Love the shout out for the Irish American Heritage Center! I spent many a St. Paddy's day growing up celebrating my grandparent's home country.

Great as usua, quite enjoyable! Just a suggestion - sure focus on usage is correct but the Irish language is immensely beyond how many people speak it daily. Ancient Greek, Latin in the dishwater because not many speak it daily? The Irish language - the speaking is only a fraction of its import - it's history, culture, one of the most extraordinary musical traditions (likely only equalled by China!), it's wonderful poetry over at least more than 12 centuries. Young people in many countries (eg., Sweden, Germany...) are fluent in English - only use it on vacation (unless maybe science, business..), Switzerland young people 3 or 4 languages but rarely speak any other language than what's spoken where they live. So, there's more to Irish (or any indeed any language) than 'daily usage'!

I'm from the Great lakes area. I'm just startn to show interest. I first started on my own dialect of Irish detroit style and it was after I seen Brad Pitts charecter in snatch. I was drunk one day and the imitation was just too much fun,it just kinda flowed. My mother and I go back and forth with the accent..she sounds more like north Dakota or Scotland sometimes. It's alot of fun.

My great great grandfather and great grandfather are from ulster.The Duffys. I only know a few phrases that I’ve learned from UKposts.

Hey, clare, I'm from Ballyfermot, Dublin, live in Nashville, Tennessee and I'm trying to teach myself Irish, but with few Irish people around me, my lessons come from duolingo and UKposts. But if yourself or anybody else know of other resources, it'd be appreciated. One thing, is it best to keep to one dialect or does it matter, because lessons from UKposts go between Munster, Ulster and Connacht.

You should try get them to take the irish leaving cert!

One of the greatest aids to learning to speak another language is listening/watching broadcasts in that language. Is there a radio or television station that broadcasts over the internet in gaeilig?

I'm a 58 yr old American with Scots-Irish heritage. My dna results show I'm mostly Celtic from Scotland, Ireland and Wales in that order. (75% total) I have grandchildren with Venezuelan ancestry on their mother's side. So I'm smashing some duolingo for Gaidhlig, Gaelige and Espanol. Taim sean mor agus I am really trying to get immersed in these three languages to become familiar. I figure if I become a video game junkie on these three languages I'm excercising my brain and keeping it ord. Slan, tiaraidh an drasta agus chao. Keep up the good work promoting the Irish language. We live in a judgmental age where everyone is labeled either white or people of color. I have an Indian friend who is retired and learning Sanskrit. Calling him a person of color is an oversimplification.

Dia dhuit, is mise Brin Moody/Brin Ní Mhuadaigh--- Oh yes the amount of times I've had to explain to people that Irish is an actual language, and I've had a decent amount of folks STILL doubt it even after I start speaking it. I'm among those Irish Americans who has been teaching myself the language to varying degrees pretty much my whole 22 some years, having grown up with it, later making a proper effort to actually learn it as well. Though I've ended up with a rather interesting mix of specifically Gaoth Dobhair Donegal Irish and Clew Bay area Mayo Irish for two main reasons: Regarding the first, the Gaoth Dobhair Irish is because I grew up listening to Moya Brennan and Clannad, so a lot of the early exposure I had to the language was in that dialect, as it's where they are from. And then regarding the second, that was the region I chose to focus on (Connacht in general with an intentional focus on the Clew Bay area), because I started doing a lot of work with the life of Gráinne Ní Mháille (I'm in school for history and archaeology, with a focus on Irish history and folklore, and Gráinne has long been a point of interest and study over the last few years). So when I started learning, I learnt as specifically Clew Bay Irish as I could through videos from the area, so I could portray her when doing first person presentations on her for various local events. So as a result, I ended up with a rather interesting mix of Donegal Irish and Mayo Irish, hahaha. It does make it challenging and sometimes I do end up confusing myself with the pronunciations of things, and I have had the issue of saying a word two completely different ways in a given sentence, before, but I do my best to keep things straight. I try to casually lean more towards the Donegal Ulster dialect because that was what I started with, but again, sometimes the other does creep in, or I will use it intentionally depending on what I am using it for (such as various writings, when I give a pronunciation guide for something, if said story is set say in Connacht, I will try to use that dialect over the more northern one, where I can). I've made it my life goal to make the language, history, and folklore something that is more recognised and accessible to my fellow Americans especially, born mainly on the problem of being tired of getting overly stereotyped, being told off or otherwise put down for various Irish things I was raised with, etc. so between my writings (which I try to incorperate at least a little bit of Irish into things where I can), my work in the field of history, my artwork, etc, I hope that I can do my part to preserve what I can. And it's really lovely to see that there's a determined handful of others out there who have similar goals and dreams. Anyway, that's my whole story.