I intend to read that book eventually, but from what I understand,
Séadna may not be the best starting point for reading Ua Laoghaire (or so the guy over at Cork Irish would have me think). I know that there are two of Ua Laoghaire's other works over at Cork Irish that have glossaries at the end and at least one of them has audio recorded for it.
The first novel I read in Irish after finishing TYI was Brian O'Nolan's An béal bocht. His Irish is non-native, but he had a terrific ear for the language and read widely. Aside from one chapter set in Ulster, the language is pretty close to Literary Irish, which is based on Munster. He's also closely parodying the autobiographical works of Gaeltacht writers, notably the Blasket Islanders Tomás Ó Criomhthain and Peig Sayers, who were native speakers of a Munster dialect.
Interesting. I'll have to see about picking up a copy maybe then.
How do you feel about poetry? Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill was brought up in Dingle. I think her poems are brilliant and a refreshing break from more traditional Irish literature. She belongs to a group called the "Innti school" which was centred in Cork. I'm not saying her poems are easy for a beginner to make sense of, but reading and digesting a twenty-line poem is still less work than twenty-page short story or chapter in a novel.
I like poetry. Are her poems also translated into English? I think I'd like to start here. Any particular place you could point me to to find any of her stuff?
EDIT: Nevermind, after browsing on a few online book stories, I've found a few of her works. One for 5$! And most are dual-language! Score!
Even though it's technically considered a Connacht variety, I've found the dialect used by authors from the Aran Islands such as Liam Ó Flaithbheartaigh or Breandán Ó hEithir pretty comprehensible. It's not easy to find works from either of them, however.
Well, I do intend, after I've gotten a good grasp on Munster to study Connacht Irish (big surprise, I'm sure
).
Back when I was thinking of studying the Connacht dialect (because basically all I had was
Learning Irish) I picked up one or two of the works that Ó Siadhail recommends at the back of his book. I very well may dig those out sometime too.