Here is a list of some of my favorite Early Irish literature in translation.

Early Irish Myths and Sagas, translated and edited by Jeffrey Gantz
Penguin (available in paperback or epub)

This is my favorite introduction to tales from the Mythological and Ulster cycles. Gantz is a skillful translator and conveys the distinctive qualities of the early Irish prose and verse.

A Celtic Miscellany: Translations from the Celtic Literature, translated and edited by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson
Penguin (available in paperback)

Jackson has selected a wide range of Irish, Scots, and Welsh poetry and prose. Don’t look for long tales in this volume, and not all of the texts are early, but the selection is wide and representative.

Celtic Fire: The Passionate Religious Vision of Ancient Britain and Ireland, edited by Robert Van de Weyer
Doubleday (available in paperback)

This is a generous selection of mostly religious prose and verse. This is a nice way to begin reading early Celtic Christian literature.

The Tain, translated by Thomas Kinsella
Oxford (available in paperback)

This is the most widely-read, standard translation of the Tain Bo Cuailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley), the greatest tale of early Irish literature. In addition to the text itself, Kinsella’s introduction, generous offering of pre-tales that help place the Tain in context, and notes, make this an invaluable translation. As much as I like Carson’s translation (below), I like Kinsella’s better.

The Tain, translated by Ciaran Carson
Penguin (available in paperback)

Kinsella’s Tain, first published in 1969, has been due for an update. Kinsella’s fellow poet, Ciaran Carson, took on the task, but Kinsella’s translation (with additional materials) only looks stronger in the light of Carson’s effort. I mean no insult to Carson’s work; his verse translations of some of the older and more difficult Irish passages are excellent, but throughout his choices seem to modernize the tale a tad too much. Also, I feel the loss of the pre-tales which Kinsella includes but Carson only summarizes in notes.

Tales of the Elders of Ireland, translated by Ann Dooley and Harry Roe
Oxford (available in paperback)

This is a dense text, and a bit daunting at first, but it is one of my favorites. The Fenian cycle meets Saint Patrick. Dooley and Roe provide an excellent translation of the Acallam na Senorach.

The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne / The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu, translated by Standish O’Grady (Author), A H Leahy (Author); modernized and edited by T E Kinsella
Old Baldy Press (available in paperback and epub)

Standish O’Grady translated and edited The Pursuit in the late 1850s and just about every republication of this long Fenian tale has been based upon his efforts. Kinsella has updated O’Grady’s nineteenth-century prose (words such as “thee,” “thou,” and “begettest” have been modernized), translated a previously untranslated sex scene (not much by today’s standards), added notes, and written a new introduction. Leahy’s translation of Exile has also been reworked. It’s nice to have these closely related stories available in a single volume.

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The Red Branch Tales, by Randy Lee Eickhoff
Forge (available in paperback and epub edition)

Eickhoff has modernized a fine selection of Ulster Cycle tales. This is not so much a translation as a rewriting into modern prose. But he has not gone too far, and I find these versions very enjoyable — they capture much of the flavor of the old Irish tales.

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The Hounds of Chulainn, by Artie Lake
Old Baldy Press (available as epub)

These are not translations of early Irish tales, but rather experiments in the use of early Irish literary conventions. Lake is writing as though stuck in the 9th century (if modern English were available to him back then).

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Red Branch, by Morgan Llewelyn
Mass Market Paperback

There are several modern fictionalizations of the CuChulainn saga; this is my favorite. Llewelyn does a good job of reconnecting the disparate details of the Ulster Cycle, reordering, connecting, explaining. She has a lovely answer for why CuChulainn was not at Emain for the return of Deirdriu. It is a quick-reading and very enjoyable book. I recommend it as good summertime-reading.

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The Voyage of Bran
See the wikipedia entry describing this 8th century text here

The Life of St. Columba (Vita Columbae) by St. Adomnan
See the wikipedia entry describing this hagiography here

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The Book of Leinster
Translations into English of most of this important manuscript