Sir, – Spending so many weekends in parts of Ireland that I had never previously visited, I was struck by the fact that the anglicised phonetic version of the Gaelic name of the town or village is meaningless in most cases. Almost every town and village has a “welcome to …” sign, again referencing the Gaelic name and its anglicised phonetic version.
Wouldn’t it restore a real sense of place if the literal translation of the place name were added in English to those signs so that we of limited Gaelic vocabulary, tourists and newcomers to Ireland can visualise why our ancestors named their places, in many cases after natural features still visible today? For the avoidance of doubt, this proposal would not be used on directional signage.
If the scheme was extended to Northern Ireland, the sign into Tandragee (“Backside to the wind”) could become a tourist feature. – Yours, etc,
DAVID LOUGHLIN,
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Rathmines,
Dublin 6.