Are you off to Dingle then?
Posted on 06 October 2007
One of the more hair-brained ideas of Eamon O Cuiv, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs was to proclaim that the official names of all towns in Gaeltacht areas would be the Irish names.
I’m all for efforts to make Irish more appealing and stronger but what was he smoking when he came up with this? All the road signs to towns and villages in Gaeltacht areas now only show the Irish names. Even Irish visitors who frequent the areas have trouble matching road signs to their maps. Who knew that Ballydavid was Baile na nGall for instance?
The good people of Dingle took matters into their own hands by stencilling the English name of their town under "An Daingean" on most road signs, restoring them to their original state. I only saw a couple of signs that hadn’t been modified and those were well out of reach.
I wonder will Minister O Cuiv change his name to O Caoimh as a show of solidarity with the people of Kerry?
(No, he’s not a relation, despite the fact that our surnames sound the same!)
2 responses to Are you off to Dingle then?
[...] friend emailed me regarding my post about Dingle signage commenting on Eamonn O Cuiv’s surname and how likely it would be for him to change his name [...]
[...] is wrong. Luckily, locals have stencilled the word “Dingle” back onto most signage but they missed a few signs here and there. Tags:An Daingean, Canon 20D, clouds, Dingle, DINGLE DAINGEAN UI CHUIS, [...]