The Story Behind TREORAí.

I am so excited to finally release TREORAí out in the wild. After months of work, seeing it live is a bit surreal. I wanted to share a bit of the story behind how - and more importantly, why - it came to be.

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I come from an Irish family, and for as long as I can remember, the story about learning the Irish language has been the same. Friends and family all shared a collective groan when reminiscing about Irish in school. They spoke of uninterested teachers, some of whom barely knew the language themselves, and of dusty, archaic textbooks that felt a world away from modern life. The goal wasn't to communicate; it was to survive the class. It was about memorising essays on An Triail or poems by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, only to regurgitate them word-for-word in the exam before promptly forgetting them forever. Aural tapes crackle and whine with muffled voices from decades of rewind abuse. "Is mise Bart Simpson. Tá mé i mo chónaí i Springfield. Is maith liom ceol. U2? Tá se deadly!" Shivers.

The result was a deep-seated sense of frustration. People left school feeling jaded and completely unprepared to ever use the language in the real world. This experience created a psychological barrier, a feeling of being "failed" by the very system that was supposed to connect people to their heritage. For many, the desire to learn Irish didn't die, but it was buried under years of negative experiences. It wasn't just about not knowing the language; it was about the emotional scars the process had left behind.

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As I dug deeper, I realised my friends and family's story wasn't unique at all - it was a phenomenon across the whole of Ireland, and the official statistics paint a staggering picture. On the surface, things look positive. But when you look past the headline numbers, a paradox emerges: Ireland is a nation that can't speak it's own language.

The 2022 Census data reveals a system that is successfully producing a massive cohort of people with a passive, theoretical knowledge of Irish but is simultaneously failing to create active, confident speakers. It's a leaky bucket, generating what I can only describe as "lapsed speakers" faster than it creates fluent ones.

Over a million people who claim to speak Irish admit they don't speak it well. The number of people who can speak it but never do is climbing, while the number of actual daily speakers is falling. The language, for most, remains trapped in an academic box, a subject to be passed rather than a language to be lived. There is a familiarity with the language, but not fluency. And it was this gap - this chasm between passive knowledge and active confidence - that I knew needed to be bridged.

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I took a casual interest in the language myself over the years, but progress was glacial. Then, last year, a family member became incredibly motivated to learn, and I promised to investigate the best learning resources available. I wanted to find the "best of the best".

My search for the "best of the best" Irish language learning resources quickly turned into a tour through a wasteland. The resources I found were a dirge - outdated, difficult to penetrate, and not remotely user-friendly. Even the popular "bird-based" language app's Irish language course is renowned for its issues, such as incorrect pronunciation and grammatical errors that could actually hold a serious learner back. Many of these resources were simply not built for someone who wanted to achieve genuine, modern conversational ability.

This dire lack of quality tools is happening at the exact moment the Irish language is experiencing an explosive cultural renaissance. The demand to learn has never been higher, fueled by a new wave of cultural pride and visibility.

It became clear that there was a massive disconnect. The motivation for learning Irish has fundamentally changed. People aren't just trying to pass an exam anymore; they're driven by a desire to connect with a vibrant, modern culture. They want to understand the media, get the jokes, and participate in a living heritage. Yet, the tools available were still stuck in the past, designed for the old world of compulsory, rote learning.

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I knew I had to build something new, something that would modernise the learning process and (hopefully) make a positive impact on the language's future. I saw an opportunity to use the latest advances in Generative AI to create a tool for personalisation and immersion - something dynamic and interactive.

I quickly landed on the name TREORAí. It's the Irish word for "guide", which perfectly captures the app's mission to guide learners on their path to fluency. Coincidentally, the name contains "AI".

TREORAí started as a simple grammar tool but has grown into a full-blown AI tutor. It's packed with features I found lacking elsewhere: speech recognition to perfect your pronunciation, roleplay scenarios to build conversational confidence and immerse the learner in Irish culture, as well as accurate translation and pronunciation on demand. It's designed to take that latent, school-taught knowledge and finally activate it, as well as support brand new learners too.

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I use TREORAí every single day. And the best part? The same friends and family who were once so jaded by their previous experience are now excited to learn. They have their own personal tutor, a safe space to practice and make mistakes without any judgement.

I believe TREORAí offers a new way forward. It's a tool that respects the modern learner's motivations and provides a convenient, effective, and - most importantly - enjoyable path to fluency. It's your own personal Gaeltacht, right in your pocket.

I hope it brings as much joy to you as it does to me.

Bain triail as TREORAí.

~Niall