The Discovery Programme has been the name of our organisation since it was first established by the then Taoiseach (‘Prime Minister’) Mr Charles Haughey in 1991. For some time, however, it has been apparent that the name does not convey specifically enough the nature of the work we do - especially to those not involved directly in Irish archaeology.  Various suggestions have been made over the years about amending or even (although this would not have been popular) completely changing the name; to date none of these proposals have got wide approval.  But, at its last meeting, the Directorate (board of directors) agreed that a tag would be added to the English name of the organisation: The Discovery Programme: advancing research in Irish archaeology.

The Irish language name of the Discovery Programme is An Clár Fionnachtana – a direct if slightly non-idiomatic translation. The word fionnachtana is related etymologically to the name of the ancient Irish legendary hero Fionn Mac Cumhail, who, famously, obtained knowledge by sucking his thumb - a research method only occasionally resorted to by Discovery Programme staff!

The organisation also has a motto in Irish, ‘ar thóir na sean’, which can be translated as ‘in pursuit of [knowledge of] antiquity’.

In the foreword to Strategies and Questions - as it were the founding document of the Discovery Programme published in May 1992 - Professor George Eogan concluded with a poetic flourish in Irish: ‘Trí iomaire treafa go deire an domhain – scoláirí, eolaithe agus pobal ag obair as lámhaibh a chéile ar thóir na sean.’  This can be translated roughly as: ‘Three furrows ploughed to completion [literally: to the ends of the earth] – scholars, scientists and the community working, one with the other, in pursuit of [knowledge of] antiquity’.  The last four wordswere then adopted as our motto.    This phrase has, in addition to the translation given above, a slightly wider register of meaning and, as has been pointed out on many occasions, can be translated more ambiguously and humorously as ‘in pursuit of the ancient’ or even as ‘chasing the old’. The phrase appears on all the organisation’s letterheads and publications etc. and, especially among some foreign correspondents, it is sometimes - also amusingly - mistakenly understood as either part of the address of the Discovery Programme or else as the Irish language translation of its name.