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,

BRIAN Ó BROIN,
Bloomfield,
New Jersey, US.

http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/

Aontaím le Brian. Aon smaointe ag éinne eile?

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Its a bit of a non problem really, tourists have found their way through the Gaeltacht for years, I dont think the odd confused tourist is much to be concerned about. Map makers, including google, should call places by their official name, saying that the placenames act is a bit rigid, The fact is most people know Gaeltacht areas by their English name, im led to believe this also happens by some locals in the gaeltachts themselves, so with the risk of being shot down perhaps signs in the Gaeltacht should be bilingual, the use of a sign is information so what is the point if it doesnt communicate effectively? After all if signs all over the state are bi lingual, in areas with no Irish too, the it should be equal? You cant change usage overnight, people will call it what ever they want ie Dunleary for Dún Laoghaire (even though Dún Laoghaire is the only name for it), even after 90s years simce it changed from Kingstown only a handful of people pronounce it properly

An interesting annomolly is in google you can search any place name in Irish or English & it will bring you there, but the name physically displayed is in one language (ie search Baile Átha Cliath it will bring up a map displaying Dublin), but some names are randomly in Irish ( on the app at least), ie Droim Conrach is displayed instead of Drumcondra, yet An Spidéal is Spiddle, there is no system to it, its jst random places!

In short I dont think we need to worry about names of places, we cant change what other people call them, we need to focus our energy on learning & speaking Irish and through our own usage will the proper names arise

ps I agree with Brian if maps used the official name that would help usage, if everywhere calls it Spiddal you cant blame a tourist for not knowing what An Spidéal is