Is .com or .ie just not cutting it for your website? As soon as 2015 there will be a new top-level domain name available: .irish according to a leading website blog.blacknight.com

A US-based company called Dot-Irish LLC has signed a contract to run the .irish domain name registry, which will be targeted to the global Irish community. They have paid a $185,000 up front fee.

Currently, only .ie domain names directly communicate a website’s affinity with Ireland, but they are impossible to come by unless the company behind a website seeking the .ie domain has an office in Ireland.

The .irish domain name will be open to the Irish diaspora around the world, which encompasses more than 70 million people.

The driving forces behind Dot-Irish LLC represent a consortium of diverse and talented men and women from Ireland and the United States, including CEO John Toland a Belfast native,; CFO Edward L. White; CMO Edward A. White; CMO Shane Naughton (a former Wall Street 50 honoree of IrishCentral’s sister publication Irish America magazine). In their filing the .Irish state: 

"Dot-Irish (.Irish) is a new top-level domain for the global Irish Diaspora. Our mission is to provide a meaningful domain name alternative and to develop, promote and support valuable services and initiatives for Irish businesses, organizations and people all over the world. While approximately 6 million people reside on the island of Ireland, nearly 80 million people worldwide identify themselves with Irish heritage. Annual trade exports on the Island of Ireland now exceed €100 Billion and imports exceed €50 Billion. Therefore, a social and business marketplace exists for the .Irish top-level domain. We envision a niche yet valuable place on the Internet where businesses, organizations and people that wish to be categorized as Irish may readily do so.


The Company has made several presentations and taken numerous consultations to date in an effort to build support and solidify the direction of .Irish. Parties to these meetings include political organizations from every end of the spectrum in Ireland, members of European Parliament, other government officials and regulators, major international charity and cultural organizations, ICANN meeting presentations and more. These efforts have helped us confirm that there is a demand for the domain, and the concept is well received.

The partners of Dot-Irish LLC represent a consortium of diverse and talented men and women from Ireland and the United States.... It is in the spirit of new cultural connections and communications made possible through the development of the Internet and the DNS that we present .Irish as a top-level domain for the greater Irish Diaspora."