Fishing for an English Sign Irish Times 2nd June 2012
A chara, – Well done to Alex Findlater (May 31st) for turning a story about a trout about into one about the Irish language.And pity the poor tourists in north Galway, driving around looking for a place called Clonbur when all the local signs say “An Fhairche”. Why in heaven’s name would we expect visitors to Ireland to know that there is another language spoken in Ireland? I mean, it’s only our national culture.
A solution springs to mind: if it’s a Gaeltacht area, you’d think the village, the Gaeltacht authorities, the county council, the Department of the Gaeltacht, the Ordnance Survey, and whoever else has a stake, would write to the mapmakers of the world asking them to use the official name of the town when mapping the area. The Indians did it with Mumbai and the Chinese with Beijing. Then the headlines of the world would read “Huge trout caught in An Fhairche”. That would solve Mr Findlater’s problem in a jiffy, wouldn’t it? This would be made even easier if Irish newspapers (The Irish Times included) chose to use Irish placenames when reporting on Gaeltacht stories. – Is mise,
Labels: An Fhairche, Clonbur, gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Irish language, Irish Times, Logainmneacha, Placenames
posted by sacsanua @ 9:11 PM
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