Dingle name change summonses queried

The official name change of Dingle to An Daingean will not affect the legality of summonses in the west Kerry area, a spokeswoman…

The official name change of Dingle to An Daingean will not affect the legality of summonses in the west Kerry area, a spokeswoman for Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív said yesterday.

The Courts Service also said the name An Daingean had legal standing.

The validity of summonses was questioned at a recent court sitting because the court area was amended to the official (Irish) version.

It had also been claimed that it might take an order from Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to give An Daingean statutory effect and that the legality of court sittings in the town was in doubt.

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At Friday's monthly court sitting in Dingle, solicitors argued that because the name Dingle was amended to An Daingean by gardaí on 14 summonses, those amended summonses might not be valid.

The summonses included a number of drink-driving and other cases. Gardaí amended the documents, having been instructed to do so by Garda authorities because of the Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004, which came into effect on March 28th.

Judge James O'Connor adjourned the cases until the October sitting of the court to allow the matter to be clarified.

The District Court (Areas Order) 1961 lists all areas of the District Court by a specific name.

The "Dingle Court Area" of district number 17 includes several district electoral divisions, listed in their anglicised version in the 1961 order.

However, the 1961 order was bilingual, a spokesman for the courts service said yesterday and did not present a problem for the Courts Service.

The spokesman added: "Upon commencement of the placenames order, District Court offices were informed that they were to use the Irish placenames on all documents from that date forward.

"The District Court areas were set out in a statutory instrument in 1961 - that statutory instrument is bilingual so that the names of the District Court areas are included in both Irish and English."

The Irish version of the name in the Irish instrument is An Daingean, not Daingean Uí Chúis, the spokesman confirmed, and a relevant extract from the Irish version of the order has been supplied to Tralee District Court office.

A spokeswoman for Mr Ó Cuív said the Official Languages Act 2003 "has no impact on this issue".

The order affects road signs, Acts of the Oireachtas and statutory instruments and large Ordnance Survey maps only, she said.