Dr Frances Kane

Had the pleasure today of getting up close and personal with some of John O’Donvan’s handiwork and his edits for the names of Tory Island with an excellent session hosted by the wonderful Crystal Bennes @ria.ie 😍

Writing for the OS memoirs, John O’Donovan comments “what a pit-y that the Irish were so fond of calling places after such pits as the pit of Queen Meve” 😂 @irelandmapped.bsky.social

Notoriously ‘cac’ was also applied as a derogatory nickname to King James II (Séamas an Chaca ‘James of the Excrement’) after his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne 💩

We are the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project, based in Irish & Celtic Studies at QUB since 1987. Funded by DfC since 2023, we research the origins and meanings of local names and support councils with Irish forms for signage. Explore our searchable corpus at placenamesni.org.

Dia dhaoibh, a chairde!

The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project has just landed on Bluesky. We will be sharing stories, history and a few surprises behind our local place-names.

Do you have ideas on what type of content you would like to see? Maps, archives or just fun facts? Let us know below 😀

Thank you!

Thanks, Cat! I hope you are well

I’m delighted to have been awarded an @ria.ie fellowship to explore Colonial cartographies and the politics of place-name collection in the academy. Looking forward to getting started!!

Four fellowships awarded to encourage research into the RIA’s historic links with colonial enterprises - Royal Irish Academy The awarding of four fellowships (valued at €5,000 each) follows on from the Royal Irish Academy Colonial Legacies scoping exercise which was undertaken by Dr. Frances Nolan.

Four new fellowships will support research into the RIA’s historic ties to colonialism. Projects will explore museum collections, imperial knowledge networks, colonial cartography, and the Academy’s role in the spoils of empire.

Find out more 👉 https://tinyurl.com/5bxknnkx
‬

It's that time of year again where we are thrilled to announce our call for the 2026 Community Archive Scheme!

Key dates:

🗓️ Scheme opens: 27 August
❓ Information session: 2.00pm, 16 September
📩 Closing date: 7 November

For more information visit dri.ie/community-ar... and watch the video below.

Tionchar Kneecap á lua le méadú breis is 40% ar líon na mbuachaillí atá ag déanamh scrúdú Gaeilge Beagnach dhá chéad buachaill a rinne scrúdú an AS-Leibhéal sa Gaeilge i mbliana, méadú mór ar an mbliain seo caite

tuairisc.ie/tionchar-kne...

Inishowen (Inis Eoghain 'Eoghan's island') is named after Eoghan, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. As the O'Neill's importance increased, their territory was named Tyrone (Tír Eoghain 'Eoghan's land'). The O'Neills were based at Aileach 'stony place' at Greenan above Derry.

Just a quick reminder of this week’s Spring lecture, hosted by the Ulster Place-Name Society and delivered by Dr Justin Ó Gliasáin - ‘The Place-Names of Inishowen’. All welcome!!!

The Deirdre Flanagan Memorial Lecture 2025 The Ulster Place-Name Society's annual Deirdre Flanagan Memorial Lecture delivered by Justin Ó Gliasáin

The Deirdre Flanagan Memorial Lecture 2025 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-deirdr...

FOLÚNTAS | VACANCY
Scoláireacht Uí Dhonnabháin
O'Donovan Scholarship
#DIASdiscovers
www.dias.ie/2025/05/20/v...

Out on the road in Belfast this afternoon doing some field work as part of our bilingual street name provision for Translink. Examples like THIS is why we do what we do 🤦🏻‍♀️

Funded PhD opportunity with me on medieval urbanism in Ireland 😍 link 👇
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post...

Cover of the book "Digital Preservation Terminology," featuring a modern design and relevant imagery related to digital archiving.

📣 Announcing the launch of Digital Preservation Terminology: an Irish Language Glossary for Repositories and Archivists.

This landmark glossary establishes a standardised set of 68 Irish-language terms for digital preservation, developed by DRI with @gaois.bsky.social.

More: dri.ie/news/dri-lau...

Delighted to share our latest publication 'Digital Preservation: An Irish language Glossary'. Thanks to our colleagues in @gaois.bsky.social and @dri.ie for work to produce this resource for repositories and archivists. Special thanks to @niamhnicharra.bsky.social for her guidance ✨

a man sitting on a couch with the words " this is good " on the bottom ALT: a man sitting on a couch with the words " this is good " on the bottom

This is excellent Lisa! Well done agus míle buíochas ó lucht na Gaeilge anseo i mBéal Feirste

Now the fun starts! Join my colleague @catsporter.bsky.social on Monday (online) to hear all about our fantastic online resource 🤗

OS200

Delighted to return to the @nifhs.bsky.social AGM on Monday 12th May. This time I'll be talking about how to use @irelandmapped.bsky.social online resource hosted by @dri.ie. Why not try it out yourself: dri.ie/os200

We have a couple of talks coming up in the next few weeks, beginning with this one @nifhs.bsky.social 👇If your local community group would like to learn more about #OS200 and how to use the resource, please get in contact.

It looks cold!

View over sea inlet.

Broken tree trunk

Sarah bundled up in a coat. Mahee Castle in the background.

Cold and misty day for this year's @niscifest.bsky.social #PaddleBackInTime at #Nendrum. I miss my partner in crime @drfranceskane.bsky.social.
A few trees broken after Storm Eowyn making the site even more surreal in this weather! #StrangfordLough #Vikings #Ireland #Winter

Our latest publication from #OS200 colleagues @niamhroisin.bsky.social, @zenobiewan.bsky.social and @drfranceskane.bsky.social Please ask if you'd like a link to the pdf. @ulgeog.bsky.social @ulhistory.bsky.social @unioflimerick.bsky.social @researchireland.bsky.social @ukri.org #LoveIrishResearch

As I pull the plug on the other place, it reminded me of this exchange following a piece on BBC NI about the Mapping Monuments project, captured for posterity, I now use it to talk about mapping as 'contested heritage' 👇