An Foras Feasa - About Us

Foras Feasa

The term ‘foras feasa’, which can be translated as ‘foundation of knowledge’, has a particular resonance arising from its use in the title of Geoffrey Keating’s celebrated Foras feasa ar Éirinn (c.1634). This work did more than any other to transmit ancient Irish learning and traditions to the modern world and was highly influential in forming a national consciousness in Ireland. Compilation of the work involved collecting material from some of the oldest manuscript sources available and evaluating them using the most modern historiographical methods of the time. An Foras Feasa: The Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions likewise seeks to apply the most modern scholarly and technological resources available to the study of the historical and cultural traditions of this island, including relationships with Europe and with the wider world.

An Foras Feasa

An Foras Feasa: the Institute for Research in Irish Historical and Cultural Traditions is a consortium of four institutions, formally established in 2006, comprising staff from Humanities and Computer Science departments in NUIM, DCU, DKIT and SPCD; it currently has over 70 members. Foras Feasa supports individual and collaborative research projects in the areas of Humanities and Technology, and represents a unique contribution of traditional knowledge and dynamic innovation. The four research streams and research networks prioritized for the period 2007-2010 are:

• ICT Innovation and the Humanities
• Multiculturalism and Multilingualism: Textual Analysis and Linguistic Change
• Ireland and Europe: History, Literature and the Cultural Politics of Migration
• Cultural Heritage and Social Capital in a Global Context

Foras Feasa will advance the generation and utilisation of interactive media by its emphasis on the incorporation of information and communication technology into the study of the Humanities. Foras Feasa commits to disseminating the fruits of its research to scholars, students and the wider community. Building on the existing range of expertise available from its members in the various languages needed to understand Ireland’s past (including Irish, English, Latin, French, Spanish, German), it supports the diverse linguistic scholarship that the scholarly study of Irish culture and history requires and, through a range of programmes currently being designed for students and researchers, will offer training to others in this regard.

Foras Feasa affords special attention to the study of Ireland’s multiculturalism, historically and in the present, with the further aim of supporting the needs of new communities of learners and future generations of university researchers. At inter-institutional and national levels, it prioritises the needs of early career researchers and of graduate students, offering a breadth of professional training and technological expertise that will transform existing postgraduate programmes.

Partnership and Collaboration

Foras Feasa comprises staff from four third-level institutions and seeks to ensure the coherence, compatibility and visibility of research in NUIM, SPCD, DKIT and DCU through the enhancement of interdepartmental, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional co-operation. The partnership with SPCD provides complementary expertise in the field of humanities and distinctive expertise in the interrelationship of humanities, technology and education. Collaboration with DKIT offers additional specialisation in the fields of computing, software engineering and technology. The partnership with DCU’s Centre for Translation and Textual Studies brings expert researchers in the fields of multilingualism and identity formation, as well as the role of translation in cultural, political and linguistic development. Through the funding of appropriate trans-cultural and trans-national linkages, Foras Feasa promotes comparative and innovative research on Irish culture in archipelagic, European and world contexts.

An Foras Feasa is an integral part of the “Humanities Serving Irish Society” (HSIS) initiative towards building a National Platform for the Humanities, an all-island inter-institutional research and training infrastructure embracing the universities, the Royal Irish Academy, two Institutes of Technology and NCAD as a partnership of equals.