This is a study group for people learning Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge) in the Des Moines, Iowa area. Whether you are a fluent speaker, brand new to the language or someplace in between, please join us at
Olivet Baptist Church.

Where: Location may vary, please email.
When: Every Thursday
Time: 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Contact: learn.irish.dsm@gmail.com
Who: Everyone is welcome! Beginnners are encouraged to attend.

Is Gaeilge go bhriste i níos fearr le Béarla maith de lá ar bith í!

Monday, November 1, 2010

REVISED holiday schedule for upcoming classes 2010

November 9 - class
November 16 - class
November 23 - cancel
December 7 - class
December 14 - class
December 21 - cancel
December 28 - cancel

Monday, September 27, 2010

Class is tomorrow night!

Join us for class tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 28. We'll see you there!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Class tomorrow

Out of our regular order, we will have a class tomorrow night. Our next class will be the regularly scheduled class the following Tuesday. So yes, two weeks in a row this month. See you there!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Class tonight

For tonight's class, we will work mostly from Lesson 5 of Progress in Irish. Put your thinking caps on!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

July Classes

Fáilte! Our July class will be tonight, July 13. The class on July 27 will not meet. We resume our normal schedule of second and fourth Tuesdays on August 10 at the same location.

Check us out on Facebook at Iowa Irish!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Summer Classes

We will continue to have our regularly scheduled classes throughout the summer. Please feel free to join us at any time or contact me at learn.irish.dsm@gmail.com with questions.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Yes, we still have study group!

We are ongoing at the same location on the same days every month. I've been lazy about posting. We're still digging into lenition and eclipsis, so we're pretty tired by the end of the evening. To relax, we're watching TG4 television shows before we go home! Please join us.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Today is St. Patrick's Day and in the IowaLife section of the Des Moines Register on page 5E, there is a short article with Irish phrases featuring one of our group students. Check it out!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Slide concert at Holy Trinity Parish Hall

Our group had a good time at the February 13 concert. Please join us for the March 6 concert to see Slide, brought to Des Moines by the Celtic Music Association at www.thecma.org.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Talk Irish word a day

I have been getting the TalkIrish word of the day since last February and about a week ago I realized I got a word in my inbox that I have seen before. All the emails I get go into a TalkIrish folder in Outlook, so I went to the very first email I received and sure enough, I had already gathered about four duplicate words.

If TalkIrish only has roughly 365 words that they circulate, how can I use that to my advantage? The answer came to me this morning.

I often look for sentence structures I can use for building dialogue and this gives me that opportunity. For every duplicate word I get, I forward the email to myself and replace the subject line with the actual sentence used at the bottom of the word-a-day email. Now I have not only a searchable list of words, I will have a searchable list of sentences I can use and reuse.

Join the clan at http://www.talkirish.com

Monday, February 8, 2010

February 6 Class

Tomorrow's class will build on what we learned last time about mutations. This topic should help move you forward in your learning. I will also talk a little about studying hints and tips along with finding your own particular style and needs as an Irish learner.

Keep in mind the difficulty of the language: Praise yourself for what you DO know and just have fun with it! There's no pressure!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Place Names in Ireland

Here is a link for a directory of place names in Irish. There is a button up in the upper right hand corner for the English version of the page.

http://www.logainm.ie/Do.aspx?uiLang=ga

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Watching Irish language shows

Here is the link to watch old episodes of Colin and Cumberland: http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/colinandcumberland/channel/

And if you would like more variety, go to http://www.tg4.ie and follow the directions. If you want the site in English, click on Bearla.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Rang Dé Mairt

Tomorrow night is the class with Wayne Shannon, the teacher from Cedar Rapids. I've filled him in on some of our questions and challenges, so bring your questions. We'll start at the regular time: 7:00 p.m. Feicfidh mé amárach thú.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

We have a guest teacher on January 26!

Mo Chairde,

On January 26, Wayne from the Cedar Rapids Irish language group is going to teach our class!

This is a real treat for us because Wayne has a lot of experience teaching the language. Please plan to attend the class and be prepared to ask all these questions we have about sentence structure, pronunciation, resources and so on.

He will also bring with him a small collection of books from Ireland. You may purchase a book and take it home that night if you see something you like.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Tonight's Class

Dia ar maidin! Tonight we will be practicing simple sentences using adjectives to describe things around us. Join us at 7:00 pm at the church in Urbandale.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Class is January 5

Welcome to 2010! Our class meets January 5 at 7:00 pm at the church. See you there!

Friday, January 1, 2010

January 5 class

To make up for the weather and holiday related class cancellations, we'd like to offer a class on January 5. Please join us at 7:00 pm at Olivet Baptist Church in Urbandale. The address is above.