Welcome to this online version of Easy Irish!, the course developed by Gaelchultúr (www.gaelchultur.com) for RTÉ to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week) 2008. This short taster course in Irish is aimed at those who have learnt the language in the past (at school, perhaps) and who still remember words and phrases.

Easy Irish! focuses on useful everyday language that you can use in a wide range of situations. The course aims to give those who use it the confidence to speak Irish and to help them understand Irish speakers from various parts of the country. The emphasis is on developing listening and speaking skills and complicated jargon is avoided.

Learners can listen to all the dialogues contained in the course and then try the fun, interactive activities based on them.

After the last unit of the course, you will find useful information regarding Irish, such as places to speak the language and where to go if you want to brush up on it.

Those wishing to continue learning Irish can avail of Turas Teanga (www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga), RTÉ’s intermediate level multimedia language course. This course consists of a book, three audio CDs which are closely linked to the book and twenty television programmes, available on DVD. The Turas Teanga book and CDs can be purchased online from the publishers, Gill and Macmillan (www.gillmacmillan.ie), and the DVDs can be bought directly from RTé.

Easy Irish! was written and developed by the Dublin‑based Irish language company Gaelchultúr. The company’s e‑learning website, ranganna.com, contains interactive courses aimed at learners of Irish at various levels. Click here to visit the site.