If you’re learning Irish, there are some useful language tools and resources currently available that you may not know about. Most of the online resources mentioned below are all available free of charge.

Beo! (www.beo.ie) is a monthly magazine made accessible by its interactive glossaries which enable the reader to click on difficult phrases and get an English language translation. It contains a wide range of articles on such topics as current affairs, the arts, sport and technology.

Gaelport (www.gaelport.com), a portal site for the Irish language, contains comprehensive information about events, language courses, job vacancies and a lot more.

For those keen to develop their vocabulary, the Irish language terminology sites focal.ie (www.focal.ie) and acmhainn.ie (www.acmhainn.ie) are invaluable resources. An Foclóir Beag (www.csis.ul.ie/focloir) is the online version of the popular pocket dictionary and it also acts as a searchable grammar.

If you’re not sure how to spell your local placenames properly in Irish, pay a visit to logainm.ie, a site containing the names of thousands of towns, townlands, lakes, hills, glens, wells, etc.

Those writing Irish on a regular basis will find WinGléacht, the electronic version of Niall Ó Dónaill’s Irish‑English dictionary, a useful tool. It is available from Conradh na Gaeilge’s bookshop and from the various online Irish language shops. The spellchecker GaelSpell and grammar checker Ceart (www.cruinneog.com) have also become indispensable tools for those wishing to write correct Irish.

RTÉ’s multimedia course Turas Teanga (www.rte.ie/tv/turasteanga) remains a popular choice for intermediate level learners. It consists of a book, three audio CDs and two DVDs containing the 20 programmes in the TV series of the same name, presented by Sharon Ní Bheoláin, first broadcast on RTÉ in 2004.

There have been several comprehensive language courses written for beginners in recent years as well, including Gaeilge agus Fáilte by Annette Byrne (2001) and Teach Yourself Irish by Diarmuid Ó Sé and Joseph Sheils (2002).

Finally, Gaelchultúr’s e‑learning website, ranganna.com, provides a range of language courses at various levels. Sample units from these courses are available to try for free at www.ranganna.com.