December 23, 2004

As Gaeilge


The bog at Cloch na Rón or Roundstone - whatever it's called, you can still sink to your arse in it.


There is a great oil painting* of Roundstone Bog for sale in Kenny's gallery at the moment - a snip at 7000 euro for someone with a huge mantelpiece. Mind you, you won't be able to find Roundstone (or it's bog) on a map or sign from January - all names in the Gaeltacht will revert to their Irish names only. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm all for keeping Irish names, and restoring Irish names, since the old Gaelic names often point to a long-forgotten historical or long-gone geographical aspect of a place. And certainly in Gaeltacht area, all new place names (i.e. new estates in Gaeltacht areas) should have Irish names (personally, I think all new place names should have either some local significance rather than some bland, generic name). But at the same time, given that many foreign visitors are destined to stare blankly at these signs without a hope of pronouncing any of names on them, let alone finding them, I think a bit of compromise would be in order.


After all, if you haven't learned some bit of Irish, how exactly do you pronounce Rós an Mhíl, Cloch na Rón, An Fhairche or An Teach Dóite or know that they are, respectively, Rosaveel, Roundstone, Clonbur and Maam Cross?


* The artist is Jerry Marjoram, and you can see more of his work here.


Posted by Monasette at December 23, 2004 11:47 AM
Comments

I took a year of Irish at UCC (Coláiste na hOscaille Corcaigh to keep in the spirit of the post, and I'm sure I've butchered the spelling as it's been a few years), and it took me until almost the end of the second term to figure out any of the pronunciations just by looking at them. Laois still confuddles me. I pity the poor French tourists who've no stomach for throaty reading. :P When did the decision to revert everything in the Gaeltachts come about? It's kind of interesting.

Well, cheers and happy Christmas!

Posted by: kira at December 24, 2004 09:40 PM

It's not a question of restoring placenames. The Irish names are the ones by which these places are known locally, and they've been fairly exclusively used on local signposts in recent years. There is, however a real issue of consistency whereby the maps refer only to the (often obscure) English versions. Try finding a signpost to Ballydavid or Binghamstown, for example. Of course you can still use these names if you insist, but they will no longer have official status.

As for French, or any other tourists, it is a laughably anglocentric notion to suggest that they might find anglicised placenames any less difficult to pronounce than Irish ones. Or indeed that US or British explorers can comfortably navigate only in countries where they can be confident of being able to pronounce the names they read on the signposts. Generally (and this goes for us Irish as well) we don't care how we mangle the pronunciation as long as we can get by with smiles, gestures and "por favor"!

The important and fundamental question in relation to this and other measures under the recent language act (http://www.pobail.ie/en/IrishLanguage/OfficialLanguagesAct2003/) is whether, as a nation, we are interested in maintaining Irish as a living, spoken language, rather a mere school subject and a quaint "cúpla focal" for the mass-produced plastic culture we peddle to tourists (begorrah!)? If so, is it not appropriate that we take measures to ensure that those communities where it is spoken are supported in their efforts, and, at the very least, they do not have English imposed on them in their transactions with the state?

Nice blog, by the way! Athbhliain fé mhaise chughat! :-)

Posted by: Imeallach at December 31, 2004 03:10 PM

I don't disagree with you. I'd just like a longer transition period. Actually, I'd settle for more road signs in any language...

Posted by: John at January 16, 2005 10:04 PM