Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary TD, announced significant funding for Dublin City University’s Gaois research group to advance major Irish language digital projects. A grant of up to €4,013,886 has been approved for the period 2026–2029 to support the development of Dúchas, Logainm, Corpas, Canúint, and Ainm. These projects serve as state-of-the-art research and reference resources for students, teachers, journalists, translators, and the wider Irish language community, offering comprehensive access to Irish folklore, placenames, dialects, biographies, and national corpus materials. The funding will enhance site integration, improve search facilities, support AI applications, and develop the next generation of technicians and researchers.
In addition, Minister Calleary announced €900,000 in funding over three years for the ADAPT Research Centre’s eSTÓR project. eSTÓR provides a central national platform for compiling and sharing bilingual Irish-English data from public bodies. This support will sustain the platform, enabling continued contribution of language resources and integration with the European Commission’s machine translation service, eTranslation.
The funding announcements emphasize the role of digital innovation in preserving and promoting the Irish language and heritage. Minister Calleary highlighted the importance of archiving and providing public access to Ireland’s linguistic and cultural history through modern, engaging online resources. He also expressed support for the eSTÓR project’s contribution to high-quality Irish language machine translation services.
Alongside the funding, Minister Calleary launched the Irish-language version of AI Literacy in the Classroom, a free online course for post-primary teachers developed by the ADAPT Research Centre. The course, following the English version introduced in October 2024, provides workshops, in-school training for DEIS schools, and teacher training, offering educators a unique opportunity to explore artificial intelligence in the classroom in the context of the Irish language.
Professor Dáire Keogh, President of Dublin City University, welcomed the funding, noting that it recognizes the research excellence of the Gaois group and the ADAPT Research Centre while connecting digital innovation, the Irish language, and heritage. He emphasized that the projects benefit millions of users globally and demonstrate the University’s commitment to supporting innovative and reliable Irish language resources.
