Any cunning linguists here?

(hee,hee,hee...Couldn't resist. But I got your attention!) But seriously, folks: I have a friend who is traveling to Ireland in the not-too-distant future. I know that English is spoken there but a lot of Gaelic is used as well. I want to get her a language book so she can navigate. Checked local Borders and found a good Gaelic-for-beginners book but I was wondering...is there actually an Irish language ("Irish" and Gaelic are listed in one encyclopedia as being spoken in Ireland as well as English) or is "Irish" a defacto modern name for Gaelic? (FWIW I couldn't find an "Irish" language book)

In reply to shadetree30:

I speak "Southern." That's my part of the US's version of what we commonly call English. Gaelic is a language unto itself. Yet as is often true with English, people from Ireland may not understand the Gaelic of people from Wales or Scotland. Or possibly even another region of Ireland.

Once in London my wife and I were English interpreters. We sat at a six-top table with a couple from Yorkshire & another couple who were "cockney" from London. Neither of these couples could understand each other at all. However my wife and I would repeat what was said and everyone understood it from us!

Don't even try to pronounce much less spell most Gaelic names! Tell your friend to speak slowly, not loudly, and smile a lot. That pretty much works anywhere in the world.

The only Gaelic I know I learned from early Pink Floyd records.

any time your friend can't understand/can't make some one else understand... tell 'um to just offer to buy a pint and no one will care about the translation

You've got little worries. Gaelic was only required in the Free State to graduate from high school, but everyone speaks english. It does seem to me that a lot of Irish kids nowadays speak something akin to Ebonics their english is that bad (you should read my younger cousins on fb ) despite being the language of their birth. so stick to people over 35yr olds and they should be fine. Now, on a final point, if they travel to one of the areas in the very far west and nw they might find themselves in a Gaeltacht/mostly Irish only area - that they may want to research - those areas are real small and remote, however.

No, but I'm a big cunninlynguists fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7GERh0sQzY

I thought you were talking about this guy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npSFbmmKImo

There are two version of Gaelic - the one spoken in Ireland and the one spoken in Scotland. I'm led to believe by people who know about these things that they're not massively compatible.

That said, the Irish version of English is a little special - a friend of mine who's half Irish but grew up mostly in the UK and France has trouble understanding the locals in County Cork where the family's cottage is located. Fortunately most of the Irish colleagues I worked with only had an Irish 'colour' to their English, otherwise I would have been up the creek without a paddle, given that English isn't my first language anyway. Communicating in English in rural Ireland can be a little challenging occasionally until you get used to the dialect (or until you understand that going out for a quick pint usually involved a very interesting definition of 'a pint' - but they don't get a chance to get too warm).

Depending on where your friend is going in Ireland (ie how far North) it might be better if she's recognizable as an American tourist who only speaks English. Speaking Irish/Gaelic anywhere close to the northern Border (yes, that one) can get you into all sorts of interesting company - take a guess which side tends to pride itself in speaking Irish more than the other one (hint: it's the one that occasionally has members dig up AK47s in the woods just in case, like).