I’ve found the best way to learn a language: an Irish pub crawl

He runs Connemara Pub Tours, excursions that combine whizzing along the area’s winding roads past lakes and mountains with some relaxed tuition designed to help you grasp a few essential Irish phrases and traditions (from £50pp; connemarapubtours.ie). He was born and raised in southwest Connemara’s archipelago and his first language is Irish.

Learn some Irish phrases as you sip pints of Guinness

SEÁN Ó MAINNÍN

We had started our day in the Gaeilge heartland Galway, a vibrant waterside city on the River Corrib, where my partner, Colin, and I are staying at the Park House Hotel just off lively Eyre Square (room-only doubles from £203; parkhousehotel.ie).

Galway is a walkable city, and happily from our hotel it’s just a few minutes’ stroll down to the bars and pubs of the pedestrianised Latin Quarter, with its buzzy pavement terraces and buskers. Beyond is the photogenic Spanish Arch, an 18th-century extension of a medieval town wall where we watched the sun setting over the water. With its canals and waterfronts, the city barely feels like a metropolis at all.

My interest in picking up a few phrases of the language is down to Colin. Many years ago he studied Irish in Donegal, having been born and brought up in nearby Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. And so, after a couple of years together, it is about time I had a go, and the pub tour seemed the most fun way to give it a try.

The Larches pub has wild views

As we leave Galway, the houses thinning out and roads steepening, Ó Ráighne shows us a map, pointing out Na Beanna Beola (the Twelve Bens) mountain range and Lough Corrib, the largest lake in the Republic. He talks me through basic greetings, getting me to repeat each: dia duit (hello), ta (yes) and go raibh maith agat (thanks). He and Colin discuss regional pronunciation differences and the importance of preserving and reviving the Irish language (underlined by 2022’sIdentity and Language Act, which provided “official recognition of the status of the Irish language”), while I study a booklet of starter phrases with handy phonetic pronunciations.

• Ireland travel guide

After an hour’s drive up into the mountains — the Maumturks range looms up ahead, 700m (2,296ft) high, with the Partry range, slightly lower, further north — we arrive at the first stop, Finny, “in the middle of nowhere,” Ó Ráighne says. Just over the border in Co Mayo, and the furthest point from Galway, it is, he gleefully informs us, without mobile signal, “not within five miles”.

Stepping out at the Larches, our first pub, we gasp at the view over the water; it’s no surprise that Oscar Wilde called Connemara a “savage beauty”.

Step out of the Larches pub and look out over Loch Na Fooey

Sun streams into the chic interior, with turquoise panelling and a midday fire blazing. Ó Ráighne gets me to repeat an bhfuil tart ort? (are you thirsty?) and tá tart orm (I am thirsty) as we enter the bar. Happily, the beer mats help me out, with their round-up of essential Irish phrases.

We are greeted with Guinness and steaming bowls of tender lamb stew — this is sheep country — along with buttery new potatoes and micro greens grown locally. This allows me the chance to learn the words for each ingredient — uan foeil means meat of the lamb, cairéad carrot — while chatting to a friendly customer nursing a pint next to us. He turns out to be Stephen Joyce, an actor on the Gaeilge soap opera Ros na Rún and a friend of Ó Ráighne’s.

The Park House Hotel is just off lively Eyre Square

After lunch Joyce pulls out a book from his jacket, Colourful Irish Phrases by Micheál Ó Conghaile, and hilarity ensues as my Irish tuition is fast-tracked to advanced level, with phrases such as tá clogeann ataithe aige (he has a swelled head, or is full of himself), and níor fhiafraigh sé díom an raibh béal orm (he did not ask me if I had a mouth, ie he did not offer me anything to eat or drink). I’m starting to realise that Gaeilge is a poetic language, conveying meaning lyrically. An emotive phrase is an bád bán (the white boat), a metaphor for emigration, the “boat across to England, so much ingrained in our history,” Joyce says. “It was tragic — very often they had to go.”

Next stop is Keane’s Bar (keanesbarmaambridge.com) — Mary’s joint — down in Maam Valley, a wooded glacial valley. It’s one of Ireland’s oldest licenced premises, built by Alexander Nimmo in the 1820s as he supervised the construction of the roads. After his death the house became the Maam Hotel, where Pádraic Pearse, a leader of the 1916 Easter Rising, once stayed. As we explore its rooms and enjoy the open fire, Mary insists we try a potent caife Gaeilge (Irish coffee) along with a piping hot ceapaire (cheese and ham toastie), while Ó Ráighne repeats the toast, sláinte agus saol fada (health and a long life). We howl with laughter as Mary confides how she deals with the odd inebriated punter — “Gabh siar abhaile ag do bhean céile” (go back home to your wife) and “Tá do dhóthain ólta agat” (you’ve had enough drink now). And I encounter a new favourite phrase: póg mo thóin (kiss my ass).

It’s a long drive south to our final port of call, the gaeltacht on the coast, the scenery becoming flat and rocky. This, Ó Ráighne says, is Connemara’s strongest Irish-speaking area. Just east of the first bridge linking the islands, the shore is seaweed-strewn at low tide as we step out of the car. The bar is Tigh Darby in Béal an Daingean, where local musicians are to perform a traditional Irish seisiún (session).

Inside, as the Guinness flows, conversation abounds in Gaeilge. Conor Connolly, a genial local, tells me (in English) about the oral tradition of learning music, and how his performances are all about spontaneity, before pulling out his box accordion and afterwards singing a haunting a cappella vocal. Soon other regulars take turns, and there’s even a spot of sean-nós (old-style) Irish dancing. Ó Ráighne explains that these songs tell stories of Irish nationalism in the 1800s, doomed romances or emigration written from the perspective of the sweetheart left behind. As the conversation jumps between Irish and English, I learn how the language survived here because the west coast escaped British invasion: “to Hell or to Connacht” has been attributed to Oliver Cromwell as an order given to Irish Catholics.

The Daróg wine bar is in the Galway’s bohemian Westend neighbourhood

Sadly, the day’s booze-fuelled lesson is over. We utter slán go fóill (bye for now) before the hour-long drive back to Galway city along the scenic Wild Atlantic Way. Alas, we haven’t had time to visit Connemara’s largest town, Clifden, in the west, or the thatched Pearse’s Cottage in Ros Muc, in the heart of the Gaeltacht, where the aforementioned Pearse lived and wrote on the lakeshore, with its nearby visitor centre (£4; icpconamara.ie). Just before we reach Galway city, we pass the popular coastal resort of Salthill, whose 1.5 mile-long promenade is lined with bars, restaurants and other seaside attractions.

That evening Colin and I discuss the day over small plates at the elegant Daróg wine bar in the city’s bohemian Westend neighbourhood (from £12; darogwinebar.com). One saying, chalked up behind the bar at the Larches, is particularly evocative: Beidh muid ag ól Fhad is a mhairfidh an tairgead, slán agus beannacht le buaithreamh an tsaoil. “We’ll drink for as long as our money lasts,” translated Ó Ráighne, sipping his pint, “and it’ll help us forget about the troubles of life.”

This article contains affiliate links, which can earn us revenue

Stephen Emms was a guest of Tourism Ireland (ireland.com) and the Park House Hotel, which has room-only doubles from £203 (parkhousehotel.ie). Fly to Shannon or Dublin

More things to see and do in Connemara

Clifden

In Connemara’s laid-back coastal capital, Clifden, mooch round galleries, cafés and independent stores such as the Clifden Book Shop, founded in 1997 (clifdenbookshop.com) and sip a Guinness in the famous Lowry’s Bar, which has quenched the town’s thirst for 75 years (lowrysbar.ie). Walk the circuitous 16km-long Sky Road for panoramic views back over the town and visit the ruin of early-19th-century Clifden Castle (free entry), which had been built for John D’Arcy, the town’s founder.

Connemara National Park

Connemara National Park is a 5,000-acre expanse

ALAMY

One of eight national parks in Ireland, this 5,000-acre expanse is the place for rosy-cheeked fans of boggy marshland, forests and mountains. Its highest point is Benbaun (729m), one of the Twelve Bens, the area’s famed mountain range. If you are super-fit, you could attempt the 17-mile Twelve Bens Challenge, climbing all 12 Bens (modest peaks in the area) in 24 hours.

Kylemore Abbey

Kylemore Abbey was founded in 1920 and is home to 15 nuns

ALAMY

Founded in 1920, this Benedictine monastery and nunnery — where 15 nuns still live and work — is set in a 1,000-acre estate on the north edge of Connemara National Park. You can swan about its atmospheric period rooms and roam the 6-acre Victorian walled garden with distinct flower, vegetable and herb areas. There are also appealing woodland trails, a neo-gothic church and a mausoleum (£14; kylemoreabbey.com).

Killary Fjord

Take a boat tour of the Killary Fjord to discovery its mythological past

GETTY IMAGES

This glacial fjord in the rugged north comes with lashings of ancient mythology — not to mention outstanding views. A memorable way to absorb its beauty is on one of the many boat tours, which last about one and a half hours and are laced with anecdote-packed commentaries, as well as varied food and drink options (from £21; killaryfjord.ie).

Other ways to learn dialects and languages across the UK

Gaelic while ice swimming in Scotland

The pioneering guide Dan the Merman, based between the Sound of Jura and Loch Fyne in Earra-Ghàidheal on the west coast of Scotland, offers wellbeing retreats combined with his passion for the preservation of the Gaelic language (inquire for prices: swimdanthemerman.com).

Welsh at Nant Gwrtheyrn

This Heritage Centre in Capel Seilo is the place to enrol in Welsh language starter courses on the Llyn Peninsula, where you can stay in refurbished Victorian cottages (courses from £165; one night’s self-catering for two from £135; nantgwrtheyrn.org).

Brush up on the Yorkshire dialect

Learn yersen summat new lass. Established in 1897, Britain’s oldest surviving dialect society offers six-week courses at Keighley library led by Rod Dimbleby, its chairman (from £5 a session; yorkshiredialectsociety.org.uk).

What’s your top tip for language learning? Let us know in the comments

Become a subscriber and, along with unlimited digital access to The Times and The Sunday Times, you can enjoy a collection of travel offers and competitions curated by our trusted travel partners, especially for Times+ members

Sign up for our Times Travel newsletter and follow us on Instagram and X