.Irish is the new .ie

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Domain registrar and hosting company, Blacknight, is claiming that no one outside Ireland knows that .ie websites are based in the Irish Republic. Ergo, they are now offering businesses the domain name of .IRISH instead of .IE.

Will companies selling Irish-interest stuff take the bait? According to Blacknight, they will. They say that the new Dot-Irish domain is a good idea for companies whose Irishness is part of their brand or identity. And they are flogging their cause with the offer that there will be no paperwork to create a .irish domain name. Phew! Paperwork sucks.

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Says Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon, “The .IE domain, while well known in Ireland, is not as easily recognisable for people outside Ireland. Additionally there’s usually a requirement to provide paperwork when registering a .IE, such as business registration numbers or personal ID, proving entitlement to a particular name. As an Irish SME, we know that many of our customers trade on their Irishness, and for them, .IRISH is the perfect way for them to introduce themselves to an international audience. With .IRISH there is no restriction on who can register a domain name. In fact, even if you just feel a little bit Irish, you can register a .IRISH domain name, no questions asked.”

There are some organisations who are already sold on the idea. TheWildGeese.Irish is a site whose members share family histories of Irish emigration. Headquartered in New York, with members dotted around the globe, it’s a community which has almost nothing to do with the modern Irish state, yet it is unquestionably, definitively Irish.

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Wild Geese founder, Gerry Regan, likes the new .IRISH opportunity. Although the term ‘Wild Geese’ had been used as a metaphor for the Irish Diaspora since the 17th Century, their old .COM domain name just didn’t explain itself well enough. “Some people were thinking that we were some kind of bird-lovers’ site.” When he read that .IRISH domain names were coming it piqued his interest. “We replaced .COM with a more meaningful extension, to get the message across that the site was about the Irish experience, and still keep the poetic name. The word ‘Irish’ is worth 10 bonus points, right away. I think it’s vital to get that word ‘Irish’ in the domain name. I think it must be worth many thousands of extra eyeballs.”

Blacknight has launched a podcast called Trailblazers.Irish, to share the stories of individuals and organisations using the new top-level domain as their platform to the world. Gerry Regan from The Wild Geese is interviewed, along with the founders of Printing.Irish and Bitesize.Irish. The latest episode features Feargall Kenny from the New York startup and investment network Digital.Irish.

Do you want to sus out the .IRISH domain name? Then visit Blacknight.Irish. It might just look good on you.

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