Ireland Invests €1.1 Million in Historical Dictionary

Ireland Invests €1.1 Million in Historical Dictionary—The Dictionary Project Can Help U.S. Schools Do the Same

Ireland has committed over €1.1 million in funding to preserve its linguistic heritage by supporting the Historical Dictionary of Irish (Foclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge), an initiative led by the Royal Irish Academy. The four-year funding plan will produce an authoritative, freely available online dictionary documenting the Irish language from 1600 to the present. The project aims to provide comprehensive access to the Irish language’s history—covering folklore, place names, literature, dialects, and more. The database and historical subcorpora will serve students, researchers, and communities throughout Ireland and beyond.

“As a result of this lexical work… Irish will be put in a similar position to other European languages, which have comprehensive historical dictionaries,” said Minister for Rural and Community Development, Dara Calleary.

This major investment aligns with Ireland’s 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language and highlights how vital literacy and language documentation are for national identity and education.

How The Dictionary Project Can Support U.S. Classrooms

While Ireland is preserving its linguistic legacy with large-scale government support, The Dictionary Project is empowering U.S. students through grassroots literacy efforts—one classroom at a time. Since 1992

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, The Dictionary Project has helped more than 31 million students across all 50 states gain access to personal dictionaries, fostering stronger reading and writing skills. Just as Ireland is working to make its language more accessible, we believe every child in the U.S. deserves access to the most basic tool of literacy: a dictionary. 📚 Schools, educators, and sponsors across the U.S. can bring the same kind of impact to their communities by launching a local Dictionary Project.