Junior Cert Irish Audiobooks

 

We should have audiobooks of the Irish books we make kids study on the Junior cert. I made a list here of Irish language audiobooks I think we need. But the wishlist should start with the books we make 13-15 year olds read  

Having these books in audiobook format that would help students with their pronounciation and allow them get immersion in the texts while commuting etc.

Here is the list of the novels and short stories on the Junior cert. T2 is non gaelscoil prescribed texts and there are about 60,000 students per year. Which is a lot of people who could be helped with an audiobook.

The books students have to learn one from are

Sárú by Anna Heussaff 

LabhairAmach.com  by Áine Uí Fhoghlú 

Tóraíocht Taisce  by Mícheál Ó Ruairc 

Amach by Alan Titley

Smuf by Alan Titley

Hóng by Anna Heussaff

Daideo by Áine Ní Ghlinn does have an audiobook here 

Cúpla by Ógie Ó Céilleachair this seems to be the most common book used in Junior cert so this would be a great audiobook to make.

Éalú san Oíche by Colmán Ó Raghallaigh

Trumptaí Dumptaí agus An Falla Mór by Ré Ó Laighléis

Hiúdaí Beag Eithne by Ní Ghallchobhair

Gluaiseacht by Alan Titley recording is here (it is on the gaelscoil list) 

Some of these are used by more schools than others so even just recordings of the most popular ones would help a lot of students.

And the plays are

Gan Choinne by Ré Ó Laighléis 

Gleann Álainn by Brian Ó Baoill Youtube video teaching it with extra explanation 

Na Deoraithe  by Celia de Fréine 

Lá Buí Bealtaine  byMáiréad Ní Ghráda

An Casán  by Séamus de Bhilmot 

I could be missing some recordings that are available. If I am please let me know. 
These books tend to be under an hour of audio. Which means the cost and time for recording any one book is not high. Also because these are relatively simple books other Irish learners can benefit as well.

Irish Language Audiobooks we Should Have

I have moaned a lot about the lack of books with Irish and English text and Irish audio. But how much would it cost to fix this? An hour of audiobook recording seems to cost about €100. For 50 hours of Audio it would cost about 5,000 euro.

With this 50 hours you could get the books 

1. On the Junior and leaving cert cycle Cupla, A Thig ná Tit Orm, LabhairAmach.com, Gluaiseacht, Sárú and Tromluí. Combined these are about 10 hours. And we make kids read these every year we might as well give them good materials to help them.

Some teenage books already exist in audiobook form and they have been a great help to me. You can get them here

2. The classic Irish language books including Blasket Island books. And these would be public domain. An tOileánach, An old woman's reflections by Peig, 20 years a growing. Seadna just needs a digital release. 

3. An Giall, The Hostage by Brendan Behan is still performed pretty regularly so there should be a version people can study. It is about an hour and a half.

4. The open Door series. These really helped me. Making them available outside of libraries would be great. There are 4 newer books in the series without Irish language audiobooks to add to the 8 that exist. Each of these is under 2 hours of audio.

5. Popular English language books that have already been translated into Irish would help learners. 

The Hobbit

Harry Potter

4 Roald Dahl books

3 David Walliams books

each of these is about 10 hours of audio. We would have to be sure the rights holders would allow the audiobooks to be sold at a reasonable price before investing in making the audiobook. But a popular audiobook like this could really help people immerse in the language.
The main reason audiobooks are expensive to buy is they are expensive to make. If that making expense is covered then the audiobooks themselves can be cheap while still ensuring the rights holder gets paid.

6. Irish language Books of cultural importance from the Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks list.
Getting most of the 1-5 up the 50 hours budget. But if you want to add more we should record

Seacht mBua an Éirí Amach Pádraic Ó Conaire  

An tOileánach  Tomás O'Crohan 

An Beal Bocht by Flann O'Brien

Cré na Cille already recorded so we would just have to help make it digitally available

Dé Luain Eoghan Ó Tuairisc 

Ár Ré Dhearóil by Máirtín Ó Direáin

Bligeard Sráide by Michael Davitt 

Cead Aighnis by Nuala Ni Domhnaill

For five thousand euro we could get audiobooks with about 50 hours or 500 thousand words total made. And these could be free, or sold cheaply, because the making was subsidised. This would be all the books teenagers are expected to read junior and leaving cert. Translated popular kids books. 11 books in the open door series for adults. And some of the of the classic Irish language books that are big parts of our cultural heritage.

Say I am wrong and the cost is €200 per hour. That you cannot get an Irish teacher with podcast equipment to record this during a holiday for €100 per hour. Ten thousand is still the price of a second hand car.

Some money is already spent helping Irish and ten thousand euro would be a 0.05% percentage of the most recently announce funding. €20m Irish-language arts and community funding announced