The literal translation of Sin ansin é I believe is That there it, which I can't make head nor tail of. Why is there no copula in this sentence? I believe the English translation is That is it there, which has the copula is.

Im not sure, but isint it the case that sometimes the copula is dropped at the beginning at its implied ?

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Bíonn rudaí maithe mall

Daithí is right. Seo, sin and siúd can have an implied copula, and you would only put the copula in for extra emphasis.

Seo mo mhac/Seo é mo mhac = This is my son
Is é seo mo mhac/'Sé seo mo mhac = THIS is my son (not the other fella)

Barra, you've posted some interesting questions here lately. Can I ask what you're reading?

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I'm not reading anything Mick. I started learning Irish again for the first time in 20 years very recently. My approach is to begin with a small set of words and phrases, like: a, á, atá, ag, ar bith, déanamh, dhéanamh etc. and then the aim is to see if I understand sentences containing only these words. I have the English translation also to guide me. If there is something idiomatic in the sentence then I discard it. What made Sin ansin é tricky was as you say that the copula is baked into Sin. I'm only interested in learning grammar if it helps me to understand the meaning of a sentence. Otherwise enough exposure to the language is enough to learn to hear what is correct and what is wrong from a grammatical perspective. My Irish was very very weak before so I've a long way to go!

Thanks you your help!

You know when you ask someone to give you something and what do they say when they give it to you? - here it is - Seo dhuit (gan 'is')
www.vimeo.com/50060719