How Irish language is Integrated

The ECAD is bilingual by design. Every ECAD table that contains address fields has both English and Irish language versions side by side.

All Address Tables contain a field called NAME, this contains the English language version for the address element. Each table also contains a NAME_IRISH field which contains the equivalent address element in Irish.

Each Address Table contains an IRISH_VERIFICATION_ID field. This field denotes the validation status of the Irish language address element. This information is stored in the IRISH_VERIFICATION table as displayed below:

IRISH_VERIFICATION_ID VALIDATION_LIFECYCLE

0 NO IRISH - ENGLISH USED

1 EIRCODE TRANSLATION³

2 UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

3 OFFICIAL IRISH LANGUAGE VERSION

4 LEGAL OFFICIAL IRISH LANGUAGE VERSION

The Irish Validation lifecycle gives the developer the option of choosing the Irish language version where the validation level is appropriately high. Irish language versions of placenames are determined by The Placenames Branch (Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht) and given legal status by means of a placenames order signed by the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. They are published on www.logainm.ie, developed by Fiontar, DCU. This research is generally undertaken on a County by County basis, with translations moving from official Irish language versions of placenames to legal status when the entire County has been completed and the appropriate Government order enacted

It is planned that the official Irish language version provided by The Placenames Branch will replace unofficial translations provided by GeoDirectory.

The Irish Postal Address currently contains the unofficial translations provided by GeoDirectory (Type 2) and if unavailable uses the English version of the address.

The English and Irish versions of address elements are displayed per Address Table below.

3 In a small number of cases Eircode has generated a translation without recourse to official sources. These generally apply to simple Lookup Table entries (e.g. East, West, etc.). Eircode plan to have these translations verified, but do not expect the values to change.

ADDRESS TABLE NAME IRISH LANGUAGE ORGANISATION NAME

SUB_ADDRESS_NAME DEPARTMENT

NAME_IRISH

SUB_ADDRESS_NAME_IRISH DEPARTMENT_IRISH

SUB_ADDRESS_POINT NAME NAME_IRISH

ADDRESS_POINT NAME NAME_IRISH

BUILDING NAME NAME_IRISH

BUILDING_GROUP NAME

BUILDING_GROUP_NAME

NAME_IRISH

BUILDING_GROUP_NAME_IRI SH

THOROUGHFARE NAME

THOROUGHFARE_NAME

NAME_IRISH

THOROUGHFARE_NAME_IRIS H

LOCALITY NAME

LOCALITY_NAME

NAME_IRISH

LOCALITY_NAME_IRISH

POST_TOWN NAME NAME_IRISH

COUNTY NAME NAME_IRISH,

NAME_IRISH_CO

In the case of COUNTY, we have included the NAME_IRISH_CO field which is how the COUNTY is displayed in Irish in an address when CO. is placed in front of it. For example

“MEATH” is “AN MHÍ” but “CO. MEATH” is “CO. NA MÍ”, therefore “NA MÍ” appears in the NAME_IRISH_CO field.

Irish translations are also available in the various Lookup Tables.

LOOKUP TABLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IRISH LANGUAGE

QUALIFIER NAME NAME_IRISH

DESCRIPTOR NAME NAME_IRISH

GEOGRAPHIC NAME NAME_IRISH

Address Tables store QUALIFIER_ID, DESCRIPTOR_ID or GEOGRAPHIC_ID as a key to the equivalent Lookup Table. This means that the English and Irish equivalent for each of the values is equally available and is consistently stored.

For example, the thoroughfare OAKWOOD STREET UPPER would be stored in the THOROUGHFARE Table as:

THOROUGHFARE Fictional Example

NAME OAKWOOD STREET UPPER

NAME_IRISH SRÁID CHOILL NA DARACH

UACHTARACH

QUALIFIER_ID 123

GEOGRAPHIC_ID NULL

DESCRIPTOR_ID 777

THOROUGHFARE_NAME OAKWOOD

THOROUGHFARE_NAME_IRISH CHOILL NA DARACH

The QUALIFIER_ID in the THOROUGHFARE table links to the Qualifier record that contains the English and Irish version of the Qualifier.

QUALIFIER Fictional Example

QUALIFIER_ID 123

NAME UPPER

NAME_IRISH UACHTARACH

IRISH_VERIFICATION_ID 1

The DESCRIPTOR_ID in the THOROUGHFARE table links to the Descriptor record that contains the English and Irish version of the Descriptor.

DESCRIPTOR Fictional Example

DESCRIPTOR_ID 777

NAME STREET

NAME_IRISH SRÁID

IRISH_VERIFICATION_ID 777

This allows Irish versions of addresses to be searched in the exact same manner as English versions of addresses. For Example:

THOROUGHFARE Example 1 Example 2

NAME MARY STREET NORTH O'CONNELL STREET

LOWER NAME_IRISH SRÁID MHUIRE THUAIDH SRÁID UÍ CHONAILL

ÍOCHTARACH

THOROUGHFARE_NAME MARY O'CONNELL

THOROUGHFARE_NAME_IRISH MHUIRE UÍ CHONAILL

QUALIFIER_ID 0 14

DESCRIPTOR_ID 194 194

GEOGRAPHIC_ID 2 0

The two thoroughfares above have their full name stored in both English and Irish. The descriptor, qualifier and geographic is removed from the full name and the remainder is stored in THOROUGHFARE_NAME and THOROUGHFARE_NAME_IRISH.

A link to the DESCRIPTOR (STREET, ROAD, AVENUE etc.) table is stored with the thoroughfare. This link allows the Irish and English to be equally searchable.

DESCRIPTOR Example 1 EXAMPLE 2

DESCRIPTOR_ID 194 194

NAME STREET STREET

NAME_IRISH SRÁID SRÁID

A link to the QUALIFIER (LITTLE, MIDDLE, GREAT, etc.) is stored with the thoroughfare. This link allows the Irish and English to be equally searchable.

QUALIFIER Example 1 Example 2

QUALIFIER_ID 13

NAME LOWER

NAME_IRISH ÍOCHTARACH

A link to the GEOGRAPHIC (NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST) is stored with the thoroughfare.

This link allows the Irish and English to be equally searchable.

GEOGRAPHIC Example 1 Example 2

GEOGRAPHIC_ID 2

NAME NORTH

NAME_IRISH THUAIDH

This model allows the main elements of the thoroughfare to be stored and searched efficiently.

It also removes common items to separate tables to improve data accuracy and search capabilities.