We focus here on the obstacles students face when learning to read in their second language, specifically in contexts where the second language is taught as a school subject or used as a medium of instruction (immersion). Qualitative studies in these areas have highlighted strategy deployment and approaches to constructing meaning as key variables in understanding such obstacles. In the Irish context, however, emphasis has been placed on quantitative comparisons across school-types and the study of specific components of reading. We attempt here to identify difficulties that students in Ireland face when engaging with texts in their second language (Irish) through the implementation of a diagnostic approach where our focus is on the individual students and the strategies and approaches they adopt when reading. Through the use of background questionnaires, testing in the first and second languages, as well as stimulated recall, we identify specific issues at the classroom level and gain insights from verbal reports from a sample of students that allow us to study the origins of these issues. Our findings are compared to those obtained in similar studies outside of Ireland and provide the basis for pedagogical and curriculum-based recommendations aimed at improving reading outcomes among students.