The National University of Ireland confers honorary degrees on two artists and a distinguished scholar at a ceremony in UCG today. They are the artistic director of the Druid theatre. Garry Hynes; the writer and map maker, Tim Robinson; and the professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, Dr Terry Eagleton.
All three have contributed to debates about the importance of a sense of place in Irish society. None more so than Tim Robinson, whose explorations in Connemara and Aran have recovered much that might otherwise be lost.
His books and maps of the area contain a treasure trove of some 8,000 placenames in Irish, which he has explained and enlivened with observations on their history, geology, botany, folklore, literature and bibliographical data.
He has helped the public gain access to such exotic placenames as Muiceanach Idir Dha Shaile, the pigshaped hill between two seas; and the Irish name for Leenane, Lionan Cinn Mhara, the shoal at the head of the sea inlet.
Fo na Slanntrai, the cove of the scales (in the parish of Ballynakill), he explains as "evidently from the mica schist rock of which it is formed, and which shines like silvery fish scales when newly broken by waves".
Gleann Glaise, stream valley he describes as a beautiful and secluded valley "in which it is said, Connemara's last wolf was killed". Uraid is said to be the place where the last battle for Christianity will be fought, when the forces of evil will be defeated.
Although his published work is rich in lore, it contains only a part of the overall body of information, anecdote and knowledge gleaned over years of patient research. This valuable archive is now being prepared for publication on CDROM with the help of Fiachra O Marcaigh, from the computer team of The Irish Times.
It is not an enviable task: it involves sifting through thousands of entries stored on record cards and laboriously typing them into a computer. The placenames in the parishes of Roundstone and Carna will be published first, followed by the rest of Connemara.
The result will provide scholars with a unique research tool: they will, for example, be able to compile lists of all the holy wells in Rosmuc at the click of a mouse, or search through the database for the placenames which refer to a particular geological feature.
It is also planned to include location maps and background information with each entry.