The Placenames Database of Ireland (), also known as , is a database and archive of place names in Ireland. It was created by Fiontar,
Dublin City University
Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...
in collaboration with the Placenames Branch of the
.
The website is a public resource primarily aimed at journalists and translators, students and teachers, historians and researchers in genealogy.
Placenames Commission and Placenames Branch
The Placenames Commission () was established by the
Department of Finance in 1946 to advise
Ordnance Survey Ireland and the government of what the Irish name of places should be.
Although both the 1922
Constitution of the Irish Free State and the
current constitution adopted in 1937 recognised Irish as the
national language
'' ''
A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...
, the law in regard to placenames was carried over from the 19th-century UK statutes which established the Ordnance Survey and
Griffith's Valuation, under which only an English-language name had official status. Irish-language names were adopted in place of some English-language names after 1920 (e.g. King's County became
Laois, and
Kells, County Meath
Kells (; ) is a town in County Meath, Ireland. The town lies off the M3 motorway, from Navan and from Dublin. Along with other towns in County Meath, it is within the commuter belt for Dublin, and had a population of 6,608 as of the 2022 ce ...
became ) and the
Department of Posts and Telegraphs adopted Irish names, but these were ad-hoc and sometimes inconsistent or disputed by locals or Irish-language scholars.
The Place-Names (Irish Forms) Act 1973 codified the official assignment of Irish names alongside, rather than instead of, English names; in 1975 the first
statutory instrument made this act gave official Irish names to
post town
A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...
s. The names chosen were on the advice of the Placenames Branch; some differed from those adopted in previous decades, in some cases causing controversy. Responsibility for place names was transferred from the Department of Finance to the
Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands in 2000. The 1973 Act was replaced by the Official Languages Act 2003 and under its terms, the Placenames Committee continues to advise the Minister prior to the issuing of statutory instruments.
The Placenames Commission ceased on 11 October 2012 and the Placenames Committee () took its place on 19 September 2013. The Placenames Branch () is a branch of the
, established by the
Official Languages Act 2003
The Official Languages Act 2003 () is an Act of the Oireachtas of Ireland. The Act sets out rules regarding use of the Irish language by public bodies; established the office of to monitor and enforce compliance by public bodies with the pro ...
, which supports the Placenames Commission/Committee in investigating the historical Irish-language names of places.
Awards
The database website, www.logainm.ie, won the European Language Label in 2010 and was category winner at the 2011 and 2016
Irish eGovernment Awards.
See also
*
Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba, Scottish Gaelic equivalent
References
External links
Bunachar Logainmneacha na hÉireann ''Placenames database of Ireland'' home page
{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2017
Irish digital libraries
Irish toponymy
2008 establishments in Ireland
Geographical databases
Databases in Ireland
Multilingual websites
Department of Culture, Communications and Sport