The course aims to bring the student up to a basic reading ability in Old Irish. Teaching will consist of a rapid and thorough grammatical explanation of the language.

Class will meet for 1.5 hours twice weekly in semester one and one hour weekly in semester two.

The mark for this module will be determined on the basis of class exercises throughout term 1 (20%), an essay in term 2 (25%), and general preparation and participation (5%), as well as by a degree examination at the finish of the module (50%).

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The aims of this module are: to introduce the orthography, phonology and grammatical structure of the early Gaelic language; to develop awareness of the historical development of the Gaelic language in its earliest written forms; to provide a reading knowledge of the early Gaelic language; to introduce the student to early Irish prose.

By the end of this module, the student should be able: to demonstrate a basic understanding of Early Gaelic (Old Irish); to translate short passages of Early Gaelic prose under examination conditions.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.