Member Profile: Paul Curtin

Without exaggeration I can say that I have made more progress in the last two years with Let’s Learn Irish than I did in as many decades!

I began learning Irish in 1975 when my older brothers and I got our hands on Buntús Cainte, Teach Yourself Irish (Dillon & Ó Cróinín) and the accompanying LP’s. We worked through these with varying degrees of diligence and success but we were left with very little, if any, access to the spoken language. I continued on my own while living in different places in the US and started up a self guided Irish language group in Poland in the 1980’s.

For years my main Irish learning activity was to delve into Séadna and the Blasket biographies, with Ó Dónaill’s doorstop dictionary always close at hand. In time, other materials became available (tapes, bedad!) and then the internet allowed for greater listening opportunities, but it was only when I started up with Let’s Learn Irish that I finally had the chance to learn to speak Irish! Encountering the modern spoken language has been an amazing experience, although “is deachair sean-nós a bhriseadh” as, to the occasional dismay of the TEG A1 and A2 examiners, my West Muskerry instincts are ever ready to take the wheel!

I am looking forward to expanding my ability to speak and interact with other students and native speakers in the coming semesters. I can’t imagine a more convenient, efficient, and friendly way to progress in our mother tongue than Let’s Learn Irish!