Valuable and free resources

There are a number of projects been undertaken which for one reason or another are virtually unknown to many of us.

Most of us have heard of the fascinating work been carried out by An Cartlann Náisiúnta (national Archive) which now list on-line and at no charge access to the census details, including pdfs of actual returns. This trojan work was carried out almost without our knowledge until it was actually put online in the last two years. Without doubt this is a fascinating insight into our past and no doubt they will continue this important work to include the following census details for 1926. This important resource is at Census of Ireland 1901/1911, and the site is in English only.

Something which is even more undercover is the work been carried out by Fiontar, part of Dublin City University, as part of their research programme.

The first of these is called focal.ie. This is the National Terminology Database for Irish, developed in collaboration with Foras na Gaeilge's Coiste Téarmaíochta, (Terminology Committee). They are also associated with IATE (InterActive Terminology for Europe), which broadens the compass of the project into a further twenty three languages. The interactive site allows you to put in an Irish or English term and provide you with that term in English or Irish (or if you use the IATE site into any of the other 23 languages.)

Another of the projects undertaken by Fiontar is the placenames resource, logainm.ie. This site, in cooperatiion with the Placenames Branch of the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs provides placename details in Irish or in English, location, and in many cases an image of the historical card index on the place in question.

Another project also being undertaken by the indefatigueable Forbairt, is the enourmous task of the Irish Language biography, ainm.ie. This mammoth task is to digitise the 1,674 biographies colected by Diarmuid Breathnach and Máire Ní Mhurchú and make them available on-line. This is being done in collaboration with Cló Iar-Chonnachta, and intially with financial assistance from the Government.

Fiontar have also been engaged to help in the Governments language planning strategy, the 20year Strategy, a draft of which was published in 2009.

Unless otherwise indicated all links are to English Language sites
.

Trojan work has been undertaken by Fiontar (DCU) on three aspects of the language, a terminology database (focal.ie), the placenames database (logainm.ie), (and The Placenames Branch Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs) and they are also working on the Irish Biography Project (ainm.ie).

The following is a summary of new implementations on the mapping interface on the placenames website due to the feedback the have received:

- The first page was rearranged to make it more like the current version.

- A clickable map was put on the first page so that one can go straight to a specific county.

- More coordinates were added to geographical objects that didn't previously have coordinates, especially baronies and civil parishes, and they are displayed on the map at the appropriate zoom levels.

- Links were created at the top of the map to "Quick-zoom" to the level of the baronies, the parishes etc.

- The button "Show placenames" was changed so that it only appears when it is necessary to click on it.

The site with the mapping interface is to be launched in the next few days. We hope that you will benefit from it and enjoy it. The team welcome feedback anytime at this email address: logainm@dcu.ie.