Professor Mícheál Ó Mainnín is a lecturer in Irish and Celtic Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is Director of the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project and chair of the Ulster Place-Name Society. His broad research interest is in Irish and Scottish Gaelic language and literature, and he has a particular interest in language in society, Irish-Scottish connections, dialectology, and name studies. 

Dr Frances Kane is a researcher in Queen’s University, Belfast, where she works on The Northern Ireland Place-Name Project. She is also the secretary of the Ulster Place-Name Society, also based at Queen's. Her background is in Irish and linguistics, and she has a particular interest in what place can tell us about 

Dr Pat McKay and Dr Sharon Arbuthnot talk about the the traditions, mythology and place names of Lough Neagh.

Dr Pat McKay is a native of Creggan outside Randalstown, on the north shore of Lough Neagh.in Co. Antrim. He was awarded a Ph D by the University of Ulster for his thesis on the place-names of the baronies of Toome, after which he spent eighteen years as a research fellow in the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project in Queen's University. He is author of A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names and joint author of Lough Neagh Places and he has written two volumes in the Place-Names of Northern Ireland series, The Baronies of Toome, Co. Antrim and Lisnaskea and District: the Parish of Aghalurcher, Co. Fermanagh. He was Secretary of the Ulster Place-Name Society for twelve years and is currently Publicity Officer for the Society. Recently he has been involved with advising on Irish-language versions of road names for Mid-Ulster Council's road-signage project. 

Dr Sharon Arbuthnot specialises in medieval Irish language and literature. For most of the past decade, she was a researcher and editor of the historical dictionary of Irish. She now works on the dictionary of Scottish Gaelic and devotes some of her time to a public-engagement project called 'Spreading the Words', which is based at the University of Cambridge. She has published widely on medieval Irish words, texts and manuscripts and writes also for a more general audience. She is one of the authors of 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words', published by the Royal Irish Academy in 2019, and has written also a short book entitled 'Wonders and Legends of Lough Neagh' which will be released very soon. 

In this episode we chat with Eve Campbell and Liam Campbell (no relation) Eve is an archaeologist  and researcher and Liam is the Built and Heritage officer with Lough Neagh Partnership.