The Gaeilge Guide—Spark Your Connection to the Irish Language and Legacy
Pages: 272
Publisher: Hachette Books Ireland
Date: September 11, 2025
By SHELAGH BRALEY STARR
RELATED ☘️ Staff
Enthusiasm is an obvious prerequisite for learning any new language. And Irish (Gaeilge), with its unique challenges, offers no exception. But @IrishWithMollie teacher Mollie Guidera has that to spare, and it comes through in her new book, THE GAEILGE GUIDE—Spark Your Connection to the Irish Language and Legacy. This 272-page handbook shines with Guidera’s love for the Irish language—not just for the words but for the value and importance of the act of learning it. Speaking it aloud.
If the Irish language has been all the talk lately, credit Guidera, the Irish language teacher-gone-viral. She brings her lessons to new levels of storytelling with this book, reconnecting Ireland’s difficult history with the humanity that rises from speaking one’s native tongue.
Named to the An Post Irish Book Awards short list for the Last Word Listeners’ Choice award, the Gaeilge Guide offers Irish language basics, illuminating key words and phrases, their pronunciations, and a dive into definitions. It is helpful to connect context to everyday use, because it isn’t something most people have heard used, unless you live in a Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking district, of which there are few.
That’s the point of the book, and in fact the whole Irish With Mollie program: expanding those areas where Irish is used in a collective, casual way. Considering the language disappeared to near-extinction, now it’s more important than ever to capture the cultural momentum of facing history and reclaiming what should have existed and grown all along.
Guidera shares her own journey using Irish, including her challenges (some of which she shared in our interview HERE) and moments of epiphany, making this guide incredibly relatable and appealing. Her sense of humor and lighthearted manner make this potentially intimidating language accessible. This is a book—part textbook, part compendium of Irish wisdom—that you will annotate to a flurry of tabs, to mark all the thoughtful turns of phrase and inspirations you’ll want to revisit.
This book is meant as an encouraging—at times, reassuring—companion for Irish learners, with practical advice and motivation for creating the consistency necessary for success. As Guidera points out, the key is to discover the hidden patterns that exist in the language; once they are unlocked for you, you’ll feel much more in control of your learning. She also insists, there is no such thing as mastery in language; there’s only ever progress. So let that take the pressure off. Enjoy the process.
Whether you are new to learning the language or you’re interested in picking up where your traditional schooling left off, The Gaeilge Guide will root you in the voice of your ancestors and take you forward into the Ireland of the future, the one that this Irish-language movement is building right now—in great part thanks to Guidera.
Through her online courses, podcast, social media content, and educational resources, Guidera has helped thousands of people reconnect with their Irish heritage and gain confidence in speaking the language.
The Gaeilge Guide is available now in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook. Order your copy HERE
Shelagh Braley Starr is the editor of RELATED ☘️ magazine. She has been writing for newspapers and magazines for decades and is now working on an Irish historical fantasy novel of her own. You can reach her at shelagh@byancestry.com
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