When I said "you know" I didn't mean YOU specifically. I meant "people know" or "it's possible to know."

Don't be too hard on yourself, you're definitely not alone. It was a bit of a shock for me when an Irish speaker told me that the English "r" sound doesn't exist in Irish. After learning Irish in school from age 5 up to age 18, I thought I should know the alphabet at the very least.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I hope my explanation wasn't too basic for your level. It is hard to tell what level people are at or how much they might already know. Also, people other than the intended recipient sometimes benefit from the more basic approach.

I haven't found a textbook of Irish yet that didn't leave some gaps on some very basic points and it took me years to find some of those answers by myself, so I hope to help people fill in those gaps by uploading supplementary material here.

In the meantime, you've taught me a new word (fóinteach) so thanks back at you.

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Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Tá an ceart agaibh leis an 'r' - I definitely do that thing you were saying Breandán, about putting in the 'i' sound in 'óir' to differentiate from 'ór'. Those audio files are an-fhóinteach freisin.

And I had to look up helpful in the dictionary, so we both learned it