Old Irish is hard, and I would recommend you only take this class if you are prepared to spend upwards of three-four hours per week of studying the course material. Professor George is really nerdy (in a good way!) and knowledgeable, and he is enthusiastic about the material. Just keep in mind that some of the material he goes over in his lectures he doesn't test you on, and so it isn't necessary to learn or memorize. Sometimes you will have to deal with quizzes and homeworks (he doesn't check for homework, but he does expect you to be able to answer in class one of the questions, and he doesn't do cold calls. On one occasion, I didn't do the homework but I worked on one of the problems during class and I was able to get away with it). On one or two quzzies I did badly, but if you spend enough time studying, you will be able to survive. Do not lose hope!

Firstly, Professor George is an incredibly intelligent individual. I always felt that I learned so much at the end of each class period and I very much appreciated the level of detail he would go into for examples, even when some were rather specific tidbits about Greek or Latin.
Secondly, the course is incredibly difficult simply due to the nature of the languages at hand. Old Irish is a monster of a language to deal with, even as someone with decent linguistic background. Generally, each handout would cover a new grammatical detail about this language, provide relevant vocabulary, and then some sample sentences to practice translating / analyzing. George did balance the harder grammatical sections with easier handouts, so a handout dealing with the brutal verbal system of Old Irish would be followed be an easier noun declension handout. The time spent on Middle Welsh is certainly easier, but as only two weeks are spent on it, a lot of the trickier details are simply lost due to time constraints. The course definitely does ramp up with difficulty just as more details keep getting added to what one must remember about the languages.
Additionally, each Friday was dedicated to discussing excerpts from literature pertaining to the Celts. There was ample room to participate in class by responding to questions posed to the whole group and only half of the days had a brief one page discussion paper to respond to.
Quizzes honestly were not that difficult provided enough time was spent studying. Usually, one would need to address grammatical details, translate sentences, and discuss in a few sentences some of the readings.
Tests were likewise fair and enough time was given to prepare.
Certainly would recommend taking the course just for the work ethic it draws out of you alone. I feel like a better student having taken it.

This class was amazing--it is probably the only course offered at UVA with such an in-depth look at Irish and Gaelic cultures. The class was predominantly language based (Old Irish and some Welsh), with Fridays dedicated to Gaelic literature (read in English). Just as a warning, Old Irish is the most difficult language I have ever encountered in my lifetime (and I know 3 ancient languages). However, Professor George is very aware of this and makes sure all his 1 page quizzes are worth 60 points or something equally as high. He gives a ton of partial credit and goes pretty easy on the grading. If you pay attention in class or office hours and do the homework (a few practice sentences reading), you will be absolutely fine. It was a phenomenal class!

Professor George is SO SO intelligent, as well as being simply a great teacher. I was surprised by the depth of his Celtic knowledge, considering it's only a hobby of his. The material was very interesting. We focused a lot more on language than literature, basically learning Old Irish for most of the semester. (However, Prof. George did ask us what we thought of the balance between language and literature at the end of the course, so it might change in future years.) Old Irish is incredibly difficult, but George presented the material in a way that was much more comprehensible than the textbook's. He had high expectations for us, but didn't seem fazed when we were unable to meet them (oftentimes slowing the pace of the class and reviewing old material rather than learning new).