Claims to have “Every Irish Book in Print”. The web site’s interface may not be perfect, but they do offer a great range of Irish books. Specifically, look at their dictionaries section.
Prices in Euro and shipped from Co. Kerry, Ireland.
It’s good to pick up a dictionary, especially if you’re already familiar with Amazon. However, their classification of Irish dictionaries isn’t very straight forward. The edition of a certain dictionary they stock may not be the latest edition, and it’s often not easy to make out exactly what dictionary you’re reading about!
3. An Spailpín Fánach
Sells a small selection of Irish dictionaries, but the dictionaries are the old An Gúm (publisher) favourites.
Prices in Euro and shipped from Co. Galway, Ireland.
Traditionally, not many useful Irish dictionaries have existed, and those that have existed – while being of highest quality – may not have been updated in decades. The world of the Internet (an Idirlíon) has given a new place for the Irish language to exist. Learners and speakers of Irish who may have been once isolated can now communicate online. Online Irish tools have also been developed.
Below I list the big Irish word reference sites that you can use for translations.
EnglishIrishDictionary.com is probably the most popular Irish English dictionary online. It’s quick to use, and contains most common-day entries. It seems to be based on the database of Collin’s Irish dictionaries. You can search quickly in both Irish and English.
Focal.ie is lead by Dublin City University, probably arising from their Irish-language entrepeneurship centre called Fiontar. Focal.ie is quite extensive, and contains many everyday words, but brands itself as a “terminology database” rather than a full dictionary. It is great for science and technology terms. Focal.ie has a bi-lingual interface, and you can search for terms in both English or Irish.
An Foclóir Beag is a dictionary hosted by the University of Limerick, and has an Irish-only interface. It is an Irish-Irish dictionary, and is especially useful for its verb tables.
Acmhainn.ie is another searchable Irish terminology resource. It’s an Irish-only interface, and classifies terminology for subjects such as biology, health and media.
Potal Focal is a personal project by a Czech couple. Its strength is in detailed grammatical information and usage samples. (Go raibh maith agat, a Pheadair.)
If you’ve just started on your journey of learning (or re-learning) the language of Irish – well done! Comhghairdeas! Learning any language is a difficult process that demands a lot of attention and continuous practice.
Picture below is of An Foclóir Beag (and Irish-Irish dictionary not discussed here), and a well-used Foclóir Póca:
