Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 November 2020
82. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will in conjunction with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage devise a new grant scheme in which farmers will contribute colloquial and historical names of fields within their landholdings to an expanded database of local place names. [35676/20]
View answerA specific database is already in existence which is dedicated to the collection and dissemination of local or minor place names, including field names. The database is accessible through the Meitheal Logainm.ie database which was established in 2016 by the Placenames Branch of my Department.
Meitheal Logainm was specifically designed as a crowd sourcing tool for the preservation of minor placenames. Its facilities include the preservation of a written record of names, as well as related data on their origin and meaning, the accurate mapping of field names and the creation of audio recordings by users. The popularity of the website is evident from the fact that 2,200 individuals accessed the site during October 2020 alone, and as of September of this year, almost 50,000 minor names were recorded and preserved in the collection.
A number of Irish field names projects, conducted independently of, and /or prior to the establishment of Meitheal Logainm, have been subsumed into the website, including The Field Names of Glenasmole (Co. Dublin), Louth and Meath Field Names Projects, Fingal Field Names Project, as well as the ongoing Westmeath Field Names Project. Many of these projects were undertaken with the co-operation of the IFA, local History and Archaeological Societies, and individuals from the localities concerned.
