If you enjoy Word of the Week and the eDIL Twitter account, you might be interested in 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words', written by members of the eDIL team. It's a stunning book, aimed at a general readership with no prior knowledge of Irish, and it covers everything from turkeys to text-speak and Tolkien in what we hope is a fun and informative way! Available to preorder now:

https://www.ria.ie/history-ireland-100-words

Dear all,

The purpose of this page is to share some of the funny, wise, weird and wonderful words and expressions that have come down to us from medieval Irish. We are extremely grateful for the interest and support shown from people of all kinds of backgrounds and geographic locations - and, for the most part, we love to read your comments and insights. Comments of a political, personal or abusive nature are not welcome, however, and will be deleted.

The early Irish word for 'peace' is SÍTHCHÁIN; it is best-known today from the phrase Garda Síochána, the name of Ireland’s national police service.

Next Thursday we’ll be part of a free CPD event for teachers and student-teachers in Northern Ireland

Full details are on the flyer but, if you’d like to come along and help us develop classroom resources for Irish, History and Geography, register now to ensure there’s enough lunch to go around!

https://ecommerce.apps.qub.ac.uk/osrhc2019/catalog/

Many thanks to those who have already registered for our teachers’ workshops in Belfast. We’re joining forces with the Northern Ireland Place Name Project and Unlocking the Vikings and inviting teachers to explore with us how our research and resources can be used to enhance the teaching and learning of History, Geography, Irish and much more … Free, open to all teachers, easy registration via the link below:

https://ecommerce.apps.qub.ac.uk/osrhc2019/catalog/

We’re looking forward to presenting a session at the upcoming International Congress of Celtic Studies, in Bangor, Wales, on what you can expect from 'eDIL 2019' and how you can get the most out of it for your own research. The session will take place on Tuesday, 23 July, 11.30am-1pm. As well as giving out pens and taking questions, we’ll have three papers:

Sharon Arbuthnot: ‘Content changes in eDIL 2019’
Marie-Luise Theuerkauf: ‘Using the new eDIL: a how-to guide’
Máire Ní Mhaonaigh: ‘Looking outwards: eDIL and Irish loanwords’

http://celticcongress.bangor.ac.uk/programme

ELEX 2019: SMART LEXICOGRAPHY

Registration is now open for the 2019 conference in electronic lexicography, held in Sintra, Portugal from 1-3 October.

More information here:

https://elex.link/elex2019/?fbclid=IwAR2JcLdUhDz36UwOMn4ZzumZy5R_zPYiqVWuzNiZaZtqaW-iJf-1ameKXJc

eLex 2019 – electronic lexicography in the 21st century

The sixth biennial conference on electronic lexicography, eLex 2019, will take place in Sintra, Portugal, 1–3 October 2019.

WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS, NORTHERN IRELAND

‘Researching Heritage in the Classroom’ is a schools’ initiative set up by eDIL, the Northern Ireland Place Name Project and Unlocking the Vikings. On Thursday, 29th August, we are holding a day of workshops to introduce teachers to our resources and explore with them how support materials can be developed for students of History, Geography, Irish and related project work. Please join us for what we hope will be a productive and enjoyable day and spread the word to any teachers who might be interested!

Online registration is now open at:
https://ecommerce.apps.qub.ac.uk/osrhc2019/catalog/

‘Marriage and the Irish: a Miscellany’, edited by Salvador Ryan, has just been published by Wordwell Press. There are about 80 short articles in all, so something will surely catch your eye whatever your particular interests. Should you be inclined towards words and/or wayward women, however, you might want to check out two papers by members of the eDIL team. Sharon Arbuthnot writes on ‘The Language of Marriage’, while Gregor Toner takes a look at ‘The Wasting Sickness of Cú Chulainn’…

https://wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1887

'To frighten off the rude and ignorant'

Yet another fantastic conference is taking place at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies this weekend. If you like your language obscure and your words difficult (we do!), do check in to 10 Burlington Road this Friday and Saturday!

See the conference programme here:
https://www.dias.ie/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Conference-schedule.pdf

www.dias.ie

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/