Great event in TCD this week!
If you are in Dublin this week and are interested in Irish manuscripts, be sure not to miss TCD's 'Tales and Anecdotes from Irish Manuscripts' conference this Thursday and Friday! Registration and programme here:

https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/whats-on/details/event.php?eventid=132206550

Events - Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute - Trinity College Dublin

Thursday, 16 May, 9am – Friday, 17 May 2019, 10am A conference organised by Trinity Department of Irish and Celtic Studies. Storytelling is at the heart of Irish literature from the early medieval period right up to today. A story well told has the efficacy of a prayer, and we know that a prayer...

A historic conference!

Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, who is currently co-directing the eDIL Project, will be heading to Dublin this weekend to present at the 'Invasion 1169' conference in Trinity College Dublin. To commemorate the 850th anniversary of this momentous event in Irish and British history, the 'Invasion 1169' conference will feature 19 experts sharing their knowledge over the next 3 days.
Prof. Ní Mhaonaigh will speak on 'Reflexes of the invasion in Gaelic sources' on Friday.
The full programme is available here:
https://www.tcd.ie/medieval-history/assets/pdf/invasion/Programme.pdf

www.tcd.ie

Bergin Fellowship available at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies!

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies wishes to appoint a promising early-stage researcher to a five-year Bergin Fellowship in the School of Celtic Studies.

Candidates should hold a doctorate and should have a record of outstanding research experience in an area of Celtic Studies relevant to the work of the School. Intending candidates who wish to discuss the vacancy may contact the Director of the School of Celtic Studies (Ruairi O hUiginn ruairi@celt.dias.ie).

Applications should be submitted through the DIAS online e-recruitment system: https://www.dias.ie/positions/. Candidates are required to upload a letter of application together with an academic CV and a research proposal (no more than 4 pages). The names and contact details for three academic referees (who have agreed to act) should also be provided. The closing date for applications is 17 May 2019.

The Fellowship salary scale is: €52,950 - €58,852 per annum (PPC scale); €50,303 - €55,910 per annum (Non-PPC scale). The appointee will be subject to general public sector regulations with regard to annual leave, sick leave, pension entitlements etc.
DIAS is committed to gender balance and diversity

More information can be found here:
https://www.dias.ie/positions/index.php?p=1554379829

www.dias.ie

Saint Colum Cille spotted in Kerry!

As reliable sources tell us, earlier this morning St Colum Cille was spotted off the West Coast of Kerry in a beautiful pea-green boat. The saint, who is known to local and national authorities for book thievery and copyright breach, was seen making off with a heavy trunk and a beautiful copy of the Annals of the Four Masters with a further little manuscript hidden inside.
The whereabouts of the thieving saint and his loot are currently unknown. The Garda Síochána is asking the public to stay vigilant and to report any suspicious behaviour, especially book-thievery, immediately!

#AprilFools

We are currently in the process of addressing the missing and broken hyperlinks in the dictionary and will try to take care of as many as we possibly can. In the meantime, we have created a little list of issues which could prevent you from finding the correct headword and hope that you will find this useful (we also hope that you will not need it in the future):

1. Check for homonym numbers. The entry you are reading might refer you to "1 xxx" when the entry is actually under "xxx". When using the 'Browse' function, always search without the homonym number.

2. Brackets can prevent you from finding the correct word. This occurs in the case of deponent verbs which have later non-deponent forms. E.g. the reference is trying to send you to "-igidir" but the actual headword is "-igid(ir)". Or the headword is attested with single or double 's' and the headword is therefore marked as '-s(s)'

3. Spelling with or without a glide vowel. The hyperlink might be spelled with a glide vowel whereas the headword does not contain one, or vice versa.

4. The indication or absence of length-marks can affect your searches. In 'Browse', always search without the length-mark. Watch out for cases such as 'imm-sói' vs 'imm-soí' where the length-mark is placed on a different vowel in the hyperlink than in the actual headword.

5. Hyperlinks to sub-sections within entries: In particularly long entries, you will sometimes find internal references to different sections of that entry. These do not work and we are working to remove them.

6. Hyperlinks to words which are not in the dictionary: you will sometimes find words hyperlinked which look modern. In some cases, these actually refer to words in other dictionaries (such as Modern Irish dictionaries), and eDIL does not have an entry for them because they do not fall without the period of the dictionary. We are working to remove these.

Our goal is to make the dictionary as user-friendly as we possibly can, so please be patient ;)

A fascinating read on the challenges of maintaining and expanding a dictionary in the digital age. Well worth a read!

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/feb/23/oxford-english-dictionary-can-worlds-biggest-dictionary-survive-internet

Inside the OED: can the world’s biggest dictionary survive the internet?

The long read: For centuries, lexicographers have attempted to capture the entire English language. Technology might soon turn this dream into reality – but will it spell the end for dictionaries?

Fully funded PhD studentship

Working on the project 'Society and the Dead: Geospatial and Statistical approaches to complex cemeteries in early medieval Ireland'

A background in archaeology is not a requirement; cognate disciplines are welcome

https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/NBE/Research/Studentships/ArchaeologyandPalaeoecologyStudentships/

Archaeology and Palaeoecology Studentships | School of Natural and Built Environment | Queen's University Belfast

We are aware that some users, especially those not running Windows Explorer, are experiencing a problem in that they are being directed to the new concise version of the dictionary rather than the full version. The intention is that frequent users will be directed always to the full edition and we are working with our programmer to resolve the issue. In the meantime, we can only apologise for any inconvenience caused.

A quick update on yesterday's press...

You can listen to Professor Toner's interview on the following link (about 17 minutes in):

https://tg4.ie/ga/player/baile/?pid=6009009675001&teideal=Nuacht%20TG4&series=Nuacht%20TG4&dlft=35

And there is a short news item too:
https://tg4.ie/ga/nuacht/?id=1033753

Prof. Greg Toner, who leads the eDIL project, will be on Nuacht TG4 tonight, talking about the concise version of the dictionary and words you'll find there.

If you miss it, you should be able to catch up later:
https://www.tg4.ie/en/live/nuacht-tg4/

Very grateful to Darach Ó Séaghdha, who you may know from the fantastic ‘Motherfoclóir' and ‘Craic Baby’ books as well as the @TheIrishFor Twitter account, for his piece on the concise version of eDIL in today’s thejournal.ie.

Darach’s article is here:
https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/the-irish-for-what-does-old-irish-tell-us-about-ancient-ireland-4507301-Feb2019/?utm_source=shortlink

Concise eDIL is here: http://www.dil.ie

Help us find out more about how and why people use eDIL by completing the survey that is now on the website of the Concise Edition. It only takes a couple of minutes ... or you can spend more time and tell us about your interests if you wish. Huge thanks to everyone who has given us feedback already!

http://dil.ie

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

We thought we would cook up something very special for all those who LOVE Old Irish and for those who are still falling in love with it. And what could possibly be more romantic than a new eDIL feature on our website!?

Welcome to eDIL-the consise edition (affectionately known as eDIL Lite): http://dil.ie/

Here you can type in an English word and find all Irish entries with a matching definition (as shown for the word 'love' below). You can 'Switch to full edition' at any time by clicking on the button beside the search bar or you can click on any of the Irish words shown to bring you to the full entry. A list of 'Suggested Searches' should give you an idea.

Le grá,

Your eDIL Team

COMING SOON. We are pleased to announce that a new concise edition of eDIL aimed at the general user will appear soon. It will contain simplified contents showing just the headword and definitions. If you are a regular user, you won’t be affected but you will be able to switch between the two versions if you want.

We had a fantastic turnout at the eDIL workshop in UCC last Saturday! It was great to see so many Irish and History teachers attend, and learn how to make the most out of eDIL and other medieval Irish sources in the classroom. We hope to see them again soon for a follow-up event!!!

Pictured here (left to right):

Dr Rebecca Shercliff (Cambridge)
Dr Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh (UCC)
Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh (Cambridge)

Exciting times ahead this week! Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Dr Rebecca Shercliff will be going to University College Cork this Saturday to talk to teachers of Irish and History about how to get the most out of eDIL for teaching!
If you know a post-primary teacher working in the UK or Ireland who might be interested in using eDIL in their classroom, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us via Facebook or Twitter! So don't be shy to tag your teacher friends!!!

Get a taste for birds and bugs! If you are excited to see which new words are going to be part of the revised electronic dictionary, check out Sharon Arbuthnot's recent article on birds and insects in the latest Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies available here:
http://www.cmcspublications.com/journal.html

CMCS | Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies | Journal

Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies (CMCS) is a bi-annual, peer-reviewed academic journal. The journal has an excellent reputation and provides an outstanding resource for students of Celtic Studies and anyone with an interest in Celtic topics.