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 😀

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 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.

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 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...

📣 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 ✨

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

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.

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' 👇