Ciorcal Comhrá na Cuinge

Ranganna / Classes

We have a group of continuing Irish language learners who meet weekly online for conversation practice. There are also in person Beginner level classes open to UW-Madison students, senior auditors, faculty, and staff. Click the Sign Up button below to express interest in a class, or to be added to our mailing list. Email Becky with any questions or for more information!

All classes are FREE!

Upcoming Class Schedule

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Seisiún an Earraigh / Spring Session 2024

Ciorcal Comhrá - online

-Sundays 4:00-5:00 pm Central Time

-Feb 11 - April 28

-For learners with some prior experience with Irish (Advanced Beginner or Intermediate). Beidh fáilte roimh achan duine!

Spring 2024

Beginning Irish 2 - in person

-UW-Madison, Mondays 4:35-5:25

-For UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.

-Students may (optionally) register for 1 credit of independent study.

(Non-UW community members interested in beginning Irish can see our Resources section below for lots of online class options! Be in touch if you have any questions - we can help you find the right class for you.)

Check out this collection of Wordwall activities that you can use to help practice!

Organizers

Classes are taught by Dr. Rebecca Shields, lecturer in Linguistics with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Language Sciences Program.

These free classes are sponsored by UW-Madison's Language Institute.

Related Activities

Photo credit: Anna Mulfinger Tiffey

There are many other wonderful groups offering Irish and Celtic cultural activities in the Madison area. There are opportunities to watch a performance, and many groups offer opportunities to participate yourself! Here are the groups that we know about - contact Becky Shields if you know of anything else that should be added to this list!

Deiridh Seachtaine Gaeilge / Irish Language Weekends

An Irish language weekend (Deireadh Seachtaine Gaeilge) is a fun and intensive weekend of Irish language and culture learning that brings together teachers and participants from local and neighboring areas. A number of these are held across the country - here are some that are closest to Madison.

Center for Celtic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

UW-Milwaukee's Irish Language Immersion Weekend (Tionól Gaeilge) is held in late winter, and is only about a 2 hour drive from Madison.
Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School

Each August, in the week leading up to Milwaukee's giant IrishFest music festival, classes are held in a variety of Irish cultural areas, including music, dance, and some Irish language too.
Celtic Cultural Center of Madison, Wisconsin

For many years, the late Dineen Grow's Celtic Cultural Center held an annual Irish Language and Culture Weekend on the UW-Madison campus. The last of these wonderful weekends was in 2019.

Damhsa Gaelach / Irish Dance

MadCraic Irish Dance

Heidi Hakseth of Dance with Heidi offers classes in non-competitive dancing for adults in a variety of different Irish dance styles, including soft shoe and hard shoe modern step dancing, ceili dancing, and old style Irish dance. Classes are open to people of all ages and levels of dance experience, and are held at the Kanopy Dance studio downtown. MadCraic performs at various places around town, including at the Madison Overture Center's annual International Festival.
Madison Irish Set Dance

This group organizes monthly set dance sessions at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center. Set dancing is a fun social dance done in groups of 8, with specific ("set") choreography that you practice and learn. The dancing is usually accompanied by some great live music! There is an optional instruction time before the sets begin, and all sets are called. Open to all - no partner or experience necessary.
Trinity Irish Dance

The national school Trinity Irish Dance has a Madison branch. Their classes in competitive Irish step dancing are open to children. Trinity dancers compete nationally, and frequently perform at various venues around Madison and more.
Sláinte Irish Dancers

UW-Madison has a student organization for Irish dancers who are in college. They compete nationally and perform at various venues both on and off campus.
Madison Scottish Country Dancers
Lessons in Scottish dancing, held weekly at the Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center.

Spórt / Gaelic Sports

Madison Hurling Club

The Madison Hurling Club organizes games of hurling, camogie, and gaelic football for both men and women, adults and children. The club competes in national leagues.

Ceol / Music

Celtic Music Association of Madison

There are numerous local bands and musicians who play Irish and Celtic music, from traditional to modern. The Celtic Music Association of Madison maintains a list of musicians and musical events.

Cumainn Shóisialta / Social Clubs

Dane County Shamrock Club

A friendly social club promoting Irish-American heritage. The Shamrock Club has a monthly newsletter and holds social events such as an annual picnic.

Resources

We are fortunate to have many wonderful resources available online and in print for learners of Irish Gaelic. Here are some of the many good ones to help you on your Irish learning journey.

We have group members who have participated in the online courses listed below - be in touch if you would like to connect with someone who can give you more information about which class might be right for you.

Online Dictionaries and Reference

Teanglann

The database at teanglann allows you to search multiple dictionaries at once. These are a bit older than the NEID below (published in the 1950s-1990s). There is also a grammar database and a pronunciation database - you can hear audio of the words in all three major dialects. This site is most useful if you have an Irish word and want to know its meaning.
New English-Irish Dictionary

The NEID at foclóir.ie is the most up-to-date contemporary dictionary of Irish available, and also contains grammatical information and audio for most words. There are also lots of usage examples which are searchable. Since this is an English-Irish dictionary only, it is most useful when you are trying to translate from English into Irish. The NEID is also available as a phone app.
The National Terminology Database for Irish

This resource contains many specialized or technical terms which are not included in the above dictionaries.
Corpus of Contemporary Irish at Gaois.ie

This online corpus is extremely helpful in searching for examples of an Irish word or phrase in context.
Abair.ie

Abair.ie is a speech synthesizer, which will auto-generate an approximate pronunciation for any Irish word or sentence you type in.

Online Courses

FutureLearn / Fáilte ar Líne

Free online self-paced lessons in Irish language and culture created by Dublin City University. There are currently 13 levels, with each course lasting 4 weeks. Irish 101-108 are A1-A2 (Beginner) level, Irish 201-205 are B1 (Intermediate). These are not live/Zoom-based classes, but there is lots of audio and video, as well as opportunities to interact with instructors and other participants via the chat. The classes are free for the regular 4 week period - for a fee, you can keep access to the materials indefinitely (although there will be no interaction with others after the free period ends.) Interactive and very well-designed.
Oideas Gael

Donegal-based immersion school for adults whose in-person summer classes in Irish language and culture attract learners from all over Ireland and across the world. They now offer online classes during the year as well. They are reknowned for their excellent teachers and rich and interesting cultural materials.
Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin

The Cultúrlann in Derry offers online classes. There are multiple online levels and each lasts a full academic year (30 weeks!), at an extremely reasonable price. The emphasis is everyday conversational Irish. They use a series of coursebooks created by Toirealach Ó Grada of the Cultúrlann, Céimeanna Comhrá.
Gaelchultúr

Gaelchultúr is located in Dublin, Ireland, and offers in person and online language and culture classes at a variety of levels from beginner to advanced. Classes have a communicative focus and are based on the Gaeilge gan Stró coursebooks. They offer some classes during US evening and weekend hours.
Two Rivers Gaelic League

This New York branch of Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) is very active and organized. They offer language classes at various levels on weekday evenings US time, as well as study and reading groups, for a very reasonable price. A small selection of Irish language books and learning materials is also available for purchase through their website.
Na Gaeil Chicago

Na Gaeil have been teaching in person Irish classes in the Chicago area for over 35 years. They have recently started offering online classes which are open to everyone as well!
Gaelic League LA

This large West coast branch of Conradh na Gaeilge offers weekend language classes and events at many different levels.
Celtic Junction

This culture and arts center in St. Paul Minnesota organizes a wide variety of Irish cultural activities and events, including music, dance, history, and language workshops, classes, and lectures.