I'm just wondering if I could create a consensus on how far one needs to be in Learning Irish to be classified as "Intermediate" then "Advanced"...or even to create a consensus on whether learning Irish takes one too advanced...

I've only just bought a copy, and the one I have has 36 levels, and I'm assuming every edition does. I'm not sure whether it's the vocabulary scaring me, if Irish grammar is particular hard or this book progresses rather fast but it does look very promising. I would like opinions on the book in general, if other's have it. (I do have the cd's too)

Well, "Learning Irish" was my introduction to Irish, it teaches the dialect I have concentrated most on, and I have taught extensively from it - so I am a little biased, to say the least.

That said, it has a steep learning curve and took me several attempts to get through with a lot of supplementary material to help me get me through, Buntús Cainte, Teach Yourself Irish, etc.

Levels? I think I got stuck roughly around lesson 10, and then around 20 - every ten lessons or so.

Somhairle Óg has a study group going, Google Groups "Learning Irish" group: learningirish@googlegroups.com

They are just starting up again, doing revision of Lesson 2 at the moment.

You are welcome to post specific questions here any time.

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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'm actually making remarkable progress with 'Learning Irish', I have a deluxe copy of Before You Know It, and what I've done is used an audio program to break up the audio lessons from Learning Irish, and I've created flash cards from them. With all the memory activities, plus the ability to compare my pronunciation to the recordings makes it like my own personal Rosetta Stone at a fraction of the cost with a focus on the dialect I wanted rather than whatever Rosetta has; I believe it's Munster or the Standard maybe.

From what I understand, Rosetta Stone is kind of a hybrid. It uses Munster pronunciations, but the grammar and spelling is "standard."

Redwolf

@ Méan oiche: I'm a pretty rank beginner, but I'm gutsy enough to jump in and just Bí a chaint. Just spent 3 weeks in the Donegal Gaeltacht and I can keep up a broken conversation. If you want to ever do real base level stuff, I'm available on Skype. I have sort of a northern blas, but it would be good for me to hear you and you to hear me. If you ever want to set up a Skype email me at [e-mail address removed for user protection - PM Faber directly for details] and I'll send you my Skype name...then we can arrange a session around whatever you want. We could do it around what ever lesson material you're doing. Abair liom am ar bith! (Speak to me any time!).... That's what this site is all about. I'm a lower level intermediate learner (I'd say).

The book is very information-dense. I found it helpful to go back and review earlier chapters frequently. For example, I might do chapter 12, then review chapter 6, then review chapter 1 for the third time, then go on to chapter 13. In that way I did every chapter three times, and became very comfortable with the material.

Everyone defines levels like "intermediate" differently. But as a rough guide, I'd consider someone who was halfway through that book to be intermediate with respect to grammar, and by the time they had finished the book, I'd consider them advanced with respect to grammar. However, the book doesn't focus much on conversation. IIRC, you don't learn how to say "hello" until you're well into the book. So if it's your only learning resource, you might end up with advanced grammar skills but beginning-to-intermediate conversation skills.

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賢いふくろぐま
Seans Eile - free software to help you practice your Irish
Scéala na Wombait - Muddle-headed Memes and Musings

I listened a bit to the recordings of Rosetta Stone, level 2 and 3.
*Sigh*... Several of the speakers are obviously non-native speakers (they don't pronounce properly), and sometimes they teach pronunciations that don't exist, for instance:
Tá mé ag dul chuig an leabharlann, pronounced "tá - mé - ag- dul"... while "ag" is never pronounced "ag" before consonants in native speech (you drop the g). Only learners pronounce like that, they pronounce it as it is written although people don't speak like that.

In Ulster and Connachta, people say "tá mé ag gabháil" pronounced /ta: m'e: gol'/
In Munster, people say "táim ag dul" pronounced /ta:m' ə dol/

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

Since the original discussion is about Learning Irish, here's the Cois Fhairrge pronunciation:

Tá mé ag gabháil /tɑ: m´e: gel´/ (written "Tá mé ag goil" in Learning Irish).


And tá is of course /tɑ:/ in Connacht and Munster.

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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).

Haigh!
I join in somewhat late but nevertheless, here my 2 cents:

Learning Irish is one of most complete language courses I have come across so far (and as a language professional I've seen a lot) and it is, in my humble opinion, a great course. For this and a handfull of other reasons I learn Irish with this. It contains a huge amount of grammatical info which covers a huge amount of questions like why lenition here and not there and so on. At the same time it is possible to ignore the grammar sections and learn only by listening, copying and learning the texts by heart. It is an in depth course for those who seriously want to get into the language, who want to master it. I would not recommend Learning Irish to those who are just looking for some basic sentences for everyday use.
However, it can become quite boring when used as the only learning ressource. Basic conversational skills appear late in the course. Thus you work hard but are not able to anwer simple questions like "how are you" or have little conversations. Personally, I filled up this gap with "Colloquial Irish" by Thomas Ihde (and co-authors - same dialect), by exploring the internet for (trustworthy) Irish content like online radio and television (RTÉ, TG4) and so on. Ros na Rún and Aifric (Irish soaps) for example are nice audio-visual material. Nice, for instance because you hear and learn to understand different pronouniations (while sticking to the pronounciation in your course of course) and because you can easily pick up everyday expressions like "cén chaoi a bhfuil tù; feicim mé thú; ceart go leor, éist, tá ocras orm ... Also, for a quick reference I use irishdictionary.ie.
The other thing I find somewhat confusing is that Learning Irish deviates from standard Irish spelling (fuinneoig - fuinneog etc.). In my opinion this is not necessary. Concerning all those typical expressions of the dialect taught in this course (Cois Fharraige) it's OK. But for all other words that are used throughout the different dialects I don't see the use (see fuinneoig - fuinneog).
Conclusion: You will rarely find a better course and there are lots of solutions for the two little points I mentioned above.

Fuinneoig is the old dative and the g is slender ; if O Siadhail had written "fuinneog" and all that standard stuff, learners would have wondered why it is slender in pronunciation while it's broad in spelling.
Now, sometimes O Siadhail uses spellings that don't correspond to the pronunciation either and I wonder why (I mean, why for certain words and not for others), eg. the "orthu" etc, if I remember well he spells "orthu" but says /orəb/ in pronunciation and things like that.

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