Irish Placenames Website developed by DCU Fiontar

(L to R) Éamon Ó Cuív, T.D, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dr. Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín, Project Director, Fiontar and Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig, Chief Placenames Officer.

A new public website which provides the official Irish language names of almost 100,000 towns, streets and post offices throughout the country was officially launched today by Éamon Ó Cuív T.D, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.

Students, teachers, journalists, translators and others who need the authoritative Irish form of placenames can now find them easily by searching on www.logainm.ie . The site is also of interest to people worldwide who are interested in the heritage, culture and geography of Ireland.

Visitors to the site can also play sound files of the pronunciation of placenames in Counties Waterford, Galway and Donegal, while many of the placenames on www.logainm.ie are accompanied by scanned archival records from the Placenames Branch. The site also contains a facility to translate lists of placenames to and from Irish.

Work on www.logainm.ie is ongoing and more placenames, sound files and new interactive features will be added to the website in 2009-2010.

www.logainm.ie is being developed by Fiontar, Dublin City University’s Irish-medium teaching and research unit, on behalf of the Placenames Branch of the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The Fiontar project team are using the experience and technical know-how they have gained from creating and developing the award-winning Irish terminology website, www.focal.ie, and hope to make a similar success of www.logainm.ie.

Minister Ó Cuív said: “I am delighted that this excellent resource is now available to absolutely anybody who wants to find out the correct Irish name for places in Ireland. The website is the culmination of years of hard work and diligent research and it is fitting that through modern technology, our rich heritage and cultural history is instantly accessible to the public in a very user-friendly format. I am greatly looking forward to browsing through the site myself and commend both an Brainse Logainmneacha and Fiontar on this wonderful achievement.”

The project director Dr. Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín said: “This website brings Irish placenames to the people in an attractive accessible format. www.logainm.ie combines ancient sources with modern technology, bringing local knowledge to a world audience. This productive collaboration between Fiontar and the Placenames Branch brings decades of research into practical use in the media and education. Users can now access this rich linguistic and cultural heritage 24/7 all over the world, through sound and images on their desktops.”