Ireland MCP

TL;DR: one free, read-only Model Context Protocol server that lets Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot and other AI assistants look up Irish public data. Ask "What's the population of Galway?", "Any weather warnings today?" or "What did houses sell for in Ennis last year?" and the assistant gets real figures, with the source, licence and retrieval time attached.

• 9 sources, 33 tools. CSO, Oireachtas, GeoHive, data.gov.ie, Smart Dublin, Met Éireann, NTA, the Irish Statute Book and the Property Price Register.

• Two ways to run it. A hosted Streamable HTTP endpoint (/mcp), or locally over stdio with npx -y ireland-mcp.

• No accounts. Nothing to sign up for. Nothing is written anywhere.

Hosted endpoint: https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key needed). The npm package is not published yet; until it is, run the stdio server from source (see Run from source).

Tools

search and fetch follow the ChatGPT deep research contract. search returns [{id, title, url}] with ids such as cso:FY003A, oireachtas:bill/2024/12 or legislation:2024/1; fetch(id) returns {id, title, text, url, metadata}.

Every other tool returns an evidence envelope:

{
  "data": { "...": "..." },
  "source": "Met Éireann",
  "url": "https://www.met.ie/Open_Data/json/warning_IRELAND.json",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
  "attribution": "Copyright Met Éireann. Source: www.met.ie. ...",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-10-05T12:00:00.000Z",
  "cached": false,
  "truncated": false
}

stale: true means the source was down and you are seeing the last good copy. Failures are typed: BAD_ARGS, NOT_FOUND, UPSTREAM_DOWN, RATE_LIMITED, each with a hint the model can act on. Lists default to 50 items, max 500.

Related MCP server: gaff-check

Connect a client

The hosted URL is https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp. If you deploy your own copy, use your own function app URL instead.

Claude Desktop (local, stdio)

claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ireland": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ireland-mcp"] }
  }
}

Claude (remote connector)

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste the hosted /mcp URL. No authentication is needed.

ChatGPT (developer mode)

Settings → Apps & Connectors → Advanced settings → turn on Developer mode. Create a connector with the hosted /mcp URL and No authentication. Deep research uses search and fetch; chat can use every tool. Developer mode availability depends on your plan and region — check it is offered in Ireland and the EEA for your account before relying on it.

VS Code

.vscode/mcp.json (the top-level key is servers):

{
  "servers": {
    "ireland": { "type": "http", "url": "https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp" }
  }
}

Local alternative: { "type": "stdio", "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "ireland-mcp"] }.

GitHub Copilot CLI

.mcp.json in a repo, or ~/.copilot/mcp-config.json (the top-level key is mcpServers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ireland": { "type": "http", "url": "https://func-ireland-mcp-aofsjpwgy4hva.azurewebsites.net/mcp", "tools": ["*"] }
  }
}

Environment variables (local stdio)

The hosted app also reads RATE_LIMIT_PER_MINUTE (default 60 per IP), AzureWebJobsStorage__accountName, CACHE_TABLE_NAME and PPR_CONTAINER.

Run from source

Needs Node 22.12 or later.

git clone https://github.com/c-mongan/ireland-mcp && cd ireland-mcp
npm install && npm run build
node dist/src/cli.js          # stdio server — point a client's "command" here
npm run dev:http              # http://localhost:7071 landing page, MCP at /mcp
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node dist/src/cli.js   # browse the tools

Development

CI runs lint, typecheck, tests, Inspector conformance and CodeQL. A nightly workflow runs the live smoke test and opens an issue if a source breaks.

To add a source, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Hosting

The hosted endpoint runs on Azure Functions Flex Consumption in North Europe, with a capped instance count, a Table Storage cache, and App Insights. The landing page in web/ deploys to a free Azure Static Web App. See docs/deploy.md.

Licence and data

Code: MIT. Data stays under each publisher's licence — mostly CC BY 4.0. Keep the attribution text from each response when you reuse data. Per-source details and credits are in NOTICE. Not affiliated with any Irish government body. Security reports: SECURITY.md.