About
The motivation behind this small project is to add street names in the Irish language on OpenStreetMap, so that Irish speakers have mapping resources in their language.
There are several legal frameworks that support the use of the Irish language (ECHMR, Good Friday Agreement, St Andrew's Agreement) but many organisations do not comply.
When adding place names in Irish to OpenStreetMap there has been some hostility from anti-Irish contributors.
We want to create a custom map that will render the 'name:ga' OSM tag by default. This does not affect any English speakers as the 'name:ga' tag does not display when maps are rendered in English.
There are several legal frameworks that support the use of the Irish language (ECHMR, Good Friday Agreement, St Andrew's Agreement) but many organisations do not comply.
When adding place names in Irish to OpenStreetMap there has been some hostility from anti-Irish contributors.
We want to create a custom map that will render the 'name:ga' OSM tag by default. This does not affect any English speakers as the 'name:ga' tag does not display when maps are rendered in English.
Logainm is an excellent resource for place names in Ireland, particularly townland names. It does not currently support street names in the North.
We are using the Logainm public API to suggest translations for street names where they exist.
We are using the Logainm public API to suggest translations for street names where they exist.
The situation is unclear and ambiguous with poorly written guidance. Each contributor may interpret the guidance differently.
Under the constitition of Ireland the Irish language is the first official language of the state.
When visiting other countries on OSM you will see that the local language is used by default.
name=España and name:en=Spain.
However, this is not the case for Ireland. The name tag of the state was (until recently) in English,
rather than being tagged as name=Eire and name:en=Ireland.
In an attempt to rectify this, someone has changed the name tag to name=Eire / Ireland.
Two languages in one tag feels wrong. Some contributors are anti-Irish and voice opinions that Irish should not be used at all - this is an opinion not supported by legal frameworks.
Since OSM do not have clear policies it is difficult for any contributor to know what is correct.
The OpenDataNI portal is an excellent resource where government data is openly published.
We have used a Land & Property Services dataset to get a list of 25,000 street names in Northern Ireland.
There is no equivalent data source for street names in English on the equivalent website (data.gov.ie) for the free state / RoI .
- We have used a Dublin City Council dataset to get a list of 3,000 street names in Dublin to suggest appropriate translations.
- We also used the Ask about Ireland website to create a list of Cork street names to assist in translation.
- We also use the Logainm API to provide inspiration for street name translations.
Public Buildings, Bridges, Schools, Hospitals, Courts, Parks, etc.
To find out how to add translations to OpenStreetMap watch this video:
To find out how to add translations to OpenStreetMap watch this video:
Translations in Ulster-Scots can be added to OpenStreetMap. I contacted the Ulster-Scots Agency on 8th November 2023 at 4:31pm but got no reply.