Luck of the Irish runs out as judge rules it a dirty word

Carol Ann Martin is proud of her Irish roots. And she just wanted to declare it on her car's vanity licence plate: "IRISH".

"No way," said the Vermont department of motor vehicles. "No way," said Superior Court Judge Matthew Katz, backing the Department's ruling that the desired plate could be seen as a racial slur.

Ms Martin, who is appealing to the State Supreme Court, is furious. "I'm pretty upset about it," she told her local paper, the Barre Montpelier Times-Argus. "This opinion offended me. How did I get painted a racist? There's something wrong here." Judge Katz ruled last month that the department of motor vehicles acted correctly when it denied Ms Martin's request because the word she wanted to use, "IRISH", could be considered offensive or confusing to the public and found the rules regarding vanity plates reasonable and objective. While "IRISH" may not necessarily be offensive, he wrote, the department could open the door to other more offensive variations if it allowed this.

Even in the context of "IRISH", "evocative as it may be of leprechauns, shamrocks and Galway Bay, the need to avoid viewpoint discrimination can be quickly apparent," he wrote. "If IRISH is permitted, because most Vermonters would not find it offensive, is NOIRISH? "Although cinema buffs might consider this latter example intriguing, more folks would probably find it evocative of "No Irish Need Apply", an employment notice actually and reasonably offensive to many," he continued.

"(Department of) motor vehicle employees should not be expected to engage in continual `sensitivity round tables', lacking clear and objective guidelines to decide which are offensive to the average Vermonter and which are not." Judge Katz ruled that Ms Martin's intent, which was to display her ethnic heritage on her licence plate, was an irrelevant point, and he noted that the licence plate was not the best venue for such a communique. "We also have very much in mind that this case is not about what message the petitioner may send from her vehicle," the judge argued. "She may affix any bumper sticker she wishes. Instead, it is about what message she may send from her state-issued licence plate."

There are 36,000 special plates issued to cars in Vermont. At a cost of $20 a year, the plates bring in about $600,000 (£530,000) in annual revenues.