I understand the use of 'a' as a conjunction - which is often translated as 'that', but when it is used here, I'm not quite sure what it means -

Scéalaíocht Traidisiúnta: a Tásc is a Treoir

Here it is a possessive adjective: "her" (referring to scéalaíocht)


As a relative particle ("that") it would be followed by a verb form (and it would cause lenition or eclipsis).

GRMA So, it means 'her' reporting and direction ? Here's another example -

Is é dúchas an duine scéal a insint (obviously that is a relative particle - not a conjunction) followed by - 'A scéal féin scéal gach éinne,' a deirtear. Is the 'a' a possessive here as well? I suppose it means - everyone has a story, but I'm trying to understand what it means literally.

Yes it's possessive.
And in "a tásc is a treoir..." it refers to "scéalaíocht" (feminine noun, so no séimhiú nor urú)

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

in this sentence, the "a" is a kind of preposition, it's not a possessive nor a relative particle.
Relative particles can only be used before conjugated verbs, never before verbal nouns.
scéal a insint = to tell a story. "a" is a bit like "to" in English, (the "to" that's used in infinitives).

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

Literally: It's (in) the nature of a person to tell a story. 'Everyone's story is his own story' it is said.The copula is understood in the second sentence. "A scéal féin" could, grammatically, be "'his' or 'her' or 'its' or 'their' own story" but since it refers to 'gach éinne', it's 'his' (though of course we could translate it as 'their' to cover both genders).

No, it's not a relative particle here. It's a preposition or rather a "verbal noun particle". It is a reduced form of the preposition do, "to" in English.
scéal a insint = to tell a story (preposition, verbal noun particle)

You may still find forms of "do" in Munster texts, esp. older ones: scéal d'insint, scéal a dh'insint or even scéal do dh'insint
or with another verbal noun: an leabhar do léamh = to read the book (Standard Irish: an leabhar a léamh)



Yes. "His own story is everybody's story."