Unemployment is our new growth industry. Tax revenues are plummeting. Cutbacks are being made across the board on infrastructural projects. Hospital beds are lying empty while people wait for vital operations, as the Government cuts back on public spending. Only the most truly vital and noble causes, such as civil servants’ and politicians’ State pensions, will continue to enjoy undiminished funding as before.Exemplary use of public money by Mayo County Council, too. It seems that a former Raidio na Gaeltacheata journalist, Sean O Healai, spotted some Irish Language road signs were misspelt in that county – 33 to be exact. And we thought all that news of economic meltdown was bad! This is shocking stuff altogether.
But it’s a very serious matter you see, as according to an Irish Times report O Healai noted that the Gaeltacht status (and the resultant subsidies) of three areas in Mayo could be lost as a result of these Gaelic orthographic inaccuracies, so all of the signs are to be replaced forthwith.
It’s just as well Mr O Healai was on hand to spot the errors, otherwise nobody might have noticed.
Can we really afford to squander public money on such utter nonsense?
See also Belmullet to be painted out of the Gaeltacht?
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Gm and Gaeltacht - an endless battle ;-)
ReplyDeleteReminding me a little of Don Quijote - alone against the windmills of tradition.
"Can we really afford to squander public money on such utter nonsense?"
No we can't. But we do ...
Why cant they just paint the missing symbol?
ReplyDeletethere must be some kind of permanant paint available to use that would cost way way less than the hundreds of €'s each sign is going to cost the taxpayer?
Yes Harald, it is an endless one, unfortunately!
ReplyDeleteGood point Lew. And we know that they're good at painting stuff out on Mayo County Council:
English language placenames painted out in Mayo
thats it GM iam cancelling my plan to spend jan feb march in the gaeltacht will spend my dollars in hawaii instead ,untill they get their spelling right there is no excuse for this iam outraged adios
ReplyDeleteHi there Mr B Hills. Yes, you've every right to be outraged, it's scandalous stuff altogether.
ReplyDeleteI'm even thinking of cancelling my own annual holiday of unremitting misery at the Peig Sayers No-English-Spoken-Here Summer School on foot of these revelations.
Anyway, you might be better off in Hawaii rather than the Gaeltacht in Jan-Feb with that Kerrygold thong of yours!
My favorite examples of makey up Gaelic are the roadsign for "An Ribheaír" (supposed to = "The River") and Iarnród Éireann.
ReplyDeleteYep... maybe we should get a list of makey-up Gaelic names going.
ReplyDeleteWhat mean An Ribheair then? Was there no words for river in gaelic that they had to make up something?
ReplyDeleteValid question. And maybe it isn't Gaelic enough for them?
ReplyDeleteLike the original Gaelic name for Dublin (a city founded by the Vikings) "Dubh Linn", which means Black Pool.
Instead we have some misty-eyed reference from the Annals of Ulster in 13-somthing-or-other calling it Baile Atha Cliath (the Town of the Hurdled Ford). You can just imagine the comely maidens dancing along it.
Anyway, my favourite is "Lana Bus". Ancient Gaelic for "Bus Lane".
What about "eilifint".
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and make your list and I'll answer by posting 60% of the makey up words in the Oxford English Dictionary that come from French, Latin, Greek and half the languages on earth. What a joke you and your anti-Irish hate site are.
ReplyDeleteFor your information, I am Irish. What's more I was born, brought up - and live and work - in Dublin where Gaelic is a compulsory subject, unlike in Belfast where it is not.
ReplyDeleteI am anti-compulsion, anti-privilege/discrimination in employment and education, and anti-the whole bureaucracy built up around the subject down here.
English, is a living, organic language - not one kept going by grants, subsidies and Statist bureaucracy.
It is a Germanic language with a strong Romance influence, due to the Normans. Like most living European languages, it has Greek and Latin components too. The "60%" of words you refer too are not "makey-up", they are English. And that includes "borrowed" words such as "restaurant", "cafe", "Schadenfreude" and so on, which have been incorporated into the language unmolested. Unlike tokenistic nonsense such as "Lana Bus" and, most makey-up of all, "craic".
If you don't like the site you're welcome to go elsewhere... I don't think there is anything for you here.
An Ribheair is not a word in Gaelic or English or any other language its a word made up by someone who disnt actually know the correct Gaelic word for River.
ReplyDeleteAs for "Iarnród" (as in Iarnród Éireann) obviously someone didnt know the Gaelic word for Rail (maybe because there isint one -who knows ?)so they made one up from "Iarn" and "ród" except that "Iarn" is spelt wrong and "ród" isint even a word.
For your information;
ReplyDelete"eilifint" first appears in "In Cath Catharda", a 12th c. adaptation of Lucanus' "De Bello Civile". The word "elephant" is not recorded in English for another 100 years.
"Ribheair" means "estuary" or "river mouth" not "river" and has been in use in Irish since the 16th c. It is related to the word "riviera"
"iarn-" is a prefix, meaning having iron-like qualities etc. related to but not the noun "iarann" meaning iron.
This and "ród" have been in use in Irish for hundreds of years, probably from the 18th c. hence "ródach" meaning fond of travelling, "ceannródaí" meaning "a pioneer".
I'm half ready to duck here in case a blackboard duster comes flying. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
ReplyDeleteAnd here was me thinking it was bothair ?
ReplyDelete