Focal.ie and Logainm.ie

Fiontar is an interdisciplinary school within DCU. Teaching and research activities are done through the medium of the Irish language. Fiontar is involved in national and international research and between 2004 and 2007 Fiontar, along with Foras na Gaeilge, developed Focal.ie. Focal.ie is a database containing over 315,000 terms in the Irish language which can be searched for using either the English or Irish version of the term. Essentially it acts as an online Irish language dictionary which contains technical and advanced terminology not found in printed dictionaries. Focal.ie was awarded with the European award for languages in 2007.

Following the success of Focal.ie, Fiontar and The Placenames Branch set about creating a database of Irish placenames called Logainm.ie. The site was launched in October 2008.

“The principal objective of the project is to make available through the Internet, Irish placenames that have been approved by the Placenames Branch, searchable under both Irish and English versions.”

The second phase of the development of the database has now commenced and additional features, such as an interactive system so that members of the public can submit information on placenames, will now be developed.