A true blue! Englishman…spent some years living and working throughout Ireland…have a passion for most things Irish…as the whole Irish culture has such a bearing and influence upon the music I have been doing bits of research…I now need to get hold of copies of the’ four great collections or cycles’…The Mythological Cycle,the Ulster Cycle, the Fianna Cycleand the Kings cycle…as I read elswhere that ‘musicians featured prominently in these early writings’…obviously they need to be in English…I am also interested in the Tuathe De Danaan, the Druids and their links to Celtic tradition…I am told that there are interesting links to be found in the mythology of Ireland…looks like hard work but …if any one can advise…are these writings available…as I indicated…I am personally convinced that a true understanding of Irish music tradition needs a n understanding of the cultures in which it was born. Les.
There’s this thing on the web called a Search Engine. You type in a string of stuff and it returns pages and pages of links. If you want books, add amazon.com at the end of your search string. They have lots of books on this subject, and once you have one or two of these books, you will find they have reference to more books. If you don’t care to purchase all these different books, you can note their names and go and check your local library for them. I typed fianna cycle amazon.com on google.com and got hits right away.
Give it a try. 
djm
djm, I think you’d appreciate this](http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/%22%3Ethis) site (I hesitate to reproduce the site’s name here, as it includes swearing).
Hi Les—What these folks don’t understand is, sure, you can google things, but you have no way of knowing if the information is reliable. You are wondering if someone knows the best editions of these books to get. Are there editions with good explanatory material in them? And so on. Any nut can expostulate about Irish mythology on his own website and if you don’t know anything about it you can’t very well separate the nuts from the scholars. DUDES!!!
So my first recommendation, Les, would be to go to a library and see a Reference librarian, preferably at a university library. They love to help people. What I would want first would be a sort of overview of the myths and stories—not a translation of the originals, but something that helped me get the big picture of the different cycles, when they were written, etc. Sort of a mythology for beginners type book. Then I would read more detailed things—I think the detailed things would mean more to me that way. If I could place them in history. A Reference librarian could get you going and would also know which books were reliable and well-thought of by the academic community. There may be particular translations of these stories that are considered much better than others. I think a librarian could help you with that too. The translations will have been reviewed by scholars.
If you don’t have access to a librarian, well, here is the wiktionary discussion of Irish mythology. It has links. I just have no idea if it is reliable or not. But I suppose it is a place to start. Good luck on your valiant endeavor!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_mythology
Fearfaoin, that’s a bit harsher than I ever intended. I tend to buy the books, but Cynth’s method sounds good too if you have access to such a library.
djm
Well, I probably would buy the books if they were in print, but you just want to make sure you are buying good ones. That’s what I was thinking the librarian could help with. And just sort of getting generally organized about what sorts of books there are—discussion about the myths, translations of the myths themselves, etc. I have recently bought several books that I thought were going to be helpful (not this subject) that just turned out to be sort of goofy, so I may be feeling a bit paranoid.
eh?
I wondered why he said that. I thought maybe fearfaoin’s real name was Denny or something. I suppose that is a possibility still.
eh?
My bad. Sorry, Denny. Fixed. 
djm
eh?
… did I miss something?
P.S., Apologies all, I just think that’s a funny site, and bring it up every chance I get. I’m not a jerk, I swear!
No. Case of mistaken identity. Has been fixed. No one thinks you’re a jerk. All is well.
Try the sacred text site.
Just an erroneous attribution.
All swell that ends,
think nothing of it. 
eh?
Didn’t understand many of the comments…but if anyone thinks I’m a bit slow…especially on computers…you are right…I was 64 before I got one and I’m only 65 now so spare a thought for us who are new(shamed to say) to these things…Only found out what a ‘search engine’ is not that long ago! But, again…thanks for the info…Les.
Les, a lot of the comments had to do with someone using the wrong name for another person. Then it was corrected. So the mistake isn’t there any more and that’s why most of the comments don’t make any sense.
I went to the website Baglady recommended. It looks interesting. I found this link at the bottom which also looked like it might be helpful:
http://celt.ucc.ie/index.html
Well, just where did you dig that one up Baglady…what an absolutely amazing site…it’s a great start and there is enough there to keep me busy for ages…and you are right Cynth…the other site you refer to is excellent…spent some time just having a brief look at what is on offer on both sites…wow…Les.