I know I haven’t updated here recently, and I apologize for that. Things have been a bit busy, and I haven’t been transcribing as much as I would like. But, I have been buying books. All but one of them, of course, relate to Connemara. Here is a list of the books I’ve recently managed to get. In a future post, I’ll talk about how I go about finding where to buy books and getting the best price, as well as the three big ones I’m still searching for. 
First, the one I received today: Liosta Focal as Ros Muc by T.S. Ó Máille. This book is, as the title says, a list of words from Ros Muc. It’s a great resource into the dialect, as it often uses dialectal spelling (for instance, preferring cr- instead of cn- when that’s how the words are said). It was published in 1973, and is the newest one in terms of when it was collected. 
(Yes, the tea came with the book)
Another set of books I got from Ó Máille is Sean-fhocla Chonnacht. I’ve had the modern, updated version of this for a while (which is nice, and comes with a CD), though it merged things in both books and did change some of the spelling. I managed to find the original at a reasonable price for both volumes, so of course I didn’t hesitate to pick them up! As the title says, it’s just a list of seanfhocla from across Connacht, and a wealth of saibhreas that’s quickly in danger of being lost. They were both collected during the 40s, with the first volume being published in 1948 and the second coming in 1952)I hope to one day analyze these and compare them with seanfhocla as Uladh (see below) and some from Munster and maybe even Old/Classical Irish as well.
Next up is Peadar Chois Fhairrge, which is a collection of stories collected by Seán Mac Giollarnáth from Peadar Mac Thuathaláin. They’re great stories, written fairly dialectally, and maybe I’ll analyze them like I’ve done some of Mac Giollarnáth’s stories from Annála Beaga Ó Iorrus Aithneach (here, for instance). . While I was unable to get the first edition of this book, I managed to pick up the third edition from 1936, so it still wasn’t standardized, which is what matters most. He has a section on ‘éanachaí’ in the book, and I might transcribe them out similar to what I did for fish and sea creatures from Cladaigh Chonamara here and here. 
I also managed to pick up another Mac Giollarnáth book, Mo Dhúthaigh Fhiáin. This is what Ainm.ie has to say about it. “Is é Mo dhúthaigh fhiáin (1949) an sampla is fearr den chaoi ealaíonta a ndéanadh sé eolas faoin dúlra, an béaloideas, agus a fhealsúnacht féin a fhí le chéile i bprós simplí nádúrtha. Bhuaigh an leabhar sin Duais an Chraoibhín agus déanann Proinsias Mac Cana cur síos ar a cháilíochtaí in Comhar, Iúil 1950.” It’s a great little book, and it all but completes my collection of Mac Giollarnáth’s (non-translated) works. 
Moving away from Mac Giollarnáth and Ó Máille, we come to the first autobiography I’ve bought in Irish: Mise, by Colm Ó Gaora. Ó Gaora hailed from Ros Muc and was a teacher. He wrote several other books under the pen-name ‘An Gruagach Bán’. He was well-traveled across Ireland and in America. His writing was so rich (with dialectal stuff from across the country) that there was a commentary published with his work in a later edition. I’ve managed to get the first edition, published in 1943. 
The next book is a collection of folklore from Árainn (specifically Inis Mór): Scéalta Mháirtín Neile. Collected by Holger Pedersen in 1895, Ole Munch-Pedersen just recently published it in 1994. It is written in the standard, except when dialectal features are specifically to be noted. Munch-Pedersen said he did this as the elder Pedersen was learning Irish at the same time he was collecting the stories so there are some questions to the accuracy of his transcriptions. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but it’s still a good collection from Árainn. 
And that brings us to the last book on my list, and the one that sticks out like a sore thumb. Why? Because it doesn’t relate to Connemara at all! It’s actually a book of Ulster proverbs: Seanfhocla Uladh published by Énrí Ó Muirgheasa. The edition I have is from 1936, and, I believe, is the third. I purposefully chose not to buy the first as it was updated in the second edition with more seanfhocal. It seems to be fairly dialectal, featuring cha in several places, though I haven’t gone through it in detail and am not an expert in Ulster dialectology. It does contain seanfhocla from across the province though, including places where no Irish is to be heard today. Now that just leaves Seanfhocail na Muimhneach for me to get, and I’ll have all dialects covered. 
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