Dúchas – The Heritage Service ([ˈd̪ˠuːxəsˠ], meaning "heritage") was Ireland's body responsible for:
It was established under the Heritage Act 1995 as an executive agency and was the responsibility of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (1997–2002), It was abolished in 2003. Its status as an executive agency gave it no separate legal existence and it could be easily abolished without primary legislation, although the abolition was not without controversy. Natural heritage came under the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and its National Parks and Wildlife Service. Some other functions, such as the protection of historic monuments, reverted to being part of the Office of Public Works.
The website www.dúchas.ie is a project to digitize the National Folklore Collection of Ireland, University College Dublin.
Dóchas (English: "hope") is the network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in development and relief overseas and development education in Ireland. Formed in 1974, Dóchas is an umbrella group for a diverse range of organisations - large and small, young and old, secular or faith-based – that share their commitment to tackle poverty and inequality in the world. Through Dóchas, Irish NGOs work together on issues that are done better together than alone. Dóchas provides a space for NGOs to come together and exchange their experiences, and to use those experiences to come up with more effective ways to end all forms of poverty and injustice. Dóchas is the Irish member of CONCORD.
Dóchas's vision is of a world where poverty and inequality are unacceptable, and where every person has the right to live free from fear, free from want, and able to fulfil their potential.
The purpose of Dóchas is to enhance Ireland's contribution to world development. It achieves this by: leading the Development sector towards high standards of practice and being an independent representative voice of Ireland's Development sector, in order to influence public debate and decision-making in Ireland and the European Union.