Is your friend a native speaker from the Donegal Gaeltacht?

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

I don't know. He was one of the teachers there at the Scoile Nasiúnta Coimhín in Gleann Fhinne when I was there my first week. I know he lives in Derry now and is a school teacher there. I know that the other teacher, who is the principal of the school, grew up in the little valley there at Coimhin. I can certainly ask him as well. I do know that Irish is the first language for both of them and they were raised in Irish Speaking households. I seldom heard either of them speaking much English. They only spoke English to me if I insisted that they did.

Definitely a first language speaker, then. Lovely.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Actually, in Gaoth Dobhair and Rann na Feirste [Donegal] there's a noticeable difference in pronunciation beteen fear and fearr. Fearr is generally prounced as 'fe[h]r approximately - [can't do yon phonetics thingummyjig on my computer, never studied it anyvvay]. In the rest of the Donegal Gaeltacht, though, it's pronounced 'a[h]' as far as I knovv.

Thinking back now, I realise this is absolutely true. Of the teachers and locals I’ve spoken to that were from the area between na Doirí Beaga and Rann na Feirste, I can hear them saying níos féarr (as it were), while the people from Cnoc Fola and even just from Bun na Leaca and an Ghlaisigh had the ‘slightly lengthened a’ version.

I never realised that before!

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Not a native speaker.

Always wait for at least three people to agree on a translation, especially if it’s for something permanent.

My translations are usually GU (Ulster Irish), unless CO (Standard Orthography) is requested.

I don't see how they could be mixed up as people don't speak in words

an fear, tá sé níos fearr

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

In Northern Donegal, "fear" is pronounced with an ah-sound, that is very short, while "fearr" has a long ay-sound:

fear > /f'ar/ ie. "farr"
níos fearr > /nis f'ɛːr/ ie. "niss fayr".

In that dialect it's impossible to confuse them...

Redwolf talked about "leabhair" and "labhair". Actually the difference is clear too, in Ulster at least (there's less difference in Munster because they only have a slightly palatalised L there so it's not as different from broad L as the initial palatalised L you have in the other dialects).
Leabhair is "lyoh-y" /L'o:j/ in Gaoth Dobhair (it's the old dative though, because the plural is leabharthaí and the genitive is leabhaire or leabhra)
Labhair is "loh-y" /Lo:j/.

Initial unlenited broad L is very different from the slender one (see the difference in English between mill and million, roughly).

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

What I mean is that you could never mix them up since they would be used predictably with certain other words to form phrases; one would surely expect 'níos fear' to mean 'better' regardless of how 'fear(r)' is pronounced

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___