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Plan to make road signs 'more Irish'

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Comments

  • #52
    Going Forward
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,224 ✭✭✭Going Forward


    I've come to the conclusion that the PLACEMENT of Irish road signs in Ireland rather than any font or typeface is the cause of most confusion.

    I'm always reminded of the tiny signs for the airport, a black image of a plane on a small white sign, which were dotted around Dublin in the 70s/80s.
    Couldnt be seen until you were within 20 feet or at all if a van was parked in front of them!

    It's an age old device to keep us one step ahead of the invaders/visitors, nothing to do with the imparting of clear directions.


  • #53
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    Conradh will never be truely happy until there is only one language on all signposts.


  • #54
    foggy_lad
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,373 ✭✭✭✭foggy_lad


    gobnaitolunacy wrote: »
    Conradh will never be truely happy until there is only one language on all signposts.

    Most countries have only one language and for most it is not English. How do they survive? How do their visitors and tourists survive?

    If Irish was brought in as the only language we will get used to it over time as it would hopefully only be done as current signs need replacing.


  • #55
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    foggy_lad wrote: »
    Most countries have only one language and for most it is not English. How do they survive? How do their visitors and tourists survive?

    If Irish was brought in as the only language we will get used to it over time as it would hopefully only be done as current signs need replacing.

    Oh I don't know....maybe they didn't have nearly a century of a failed language revivial experiment?


  • #56
    D.L.R.
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭D.L.R.


    foggy_lad wrote: »
    Most countries have only one language and for most it is not English. How do they survive? How do their visitors and tourists survive?

    If Irish was brought in as the only language we will get used to it over time as it would hopefully only be done as current signs need replacing.

    Seems to some that both languages are equal, but Irish is more equal.


  • #57
    foggy_lad
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,373 ✭✭✭✭foggy_lad


    gobnaitolunacy wrote: »
    Oh I don't know....maybe they didn't have nearly a century of a failed language revivial experiment?
    Just do it like the property tax and the water tax and the septic tank tax and it will work!


  • #58
    gobnaitolunacy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,073 ✭✭✭gobnaitolunacy


    foggy_lad wrote: »
    Just do it like the property tax and the water tax and the septic tank tax and it will work!

    Tax people who speak English?


  • #59
    foggy_lad
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,373 ✭✭✭✭foggy_lad


    gobnaitolunacy wrote: »
    Tax people who speak English?
    Just make the changes and let people get over it in the same way other changes have been handled.


  • #60
    Banjoxed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,844 ✭✭✭Banjoxed


    foggy_lad wrote: »
    Just do it like the property tax and the water tax and the septic tank tax and it will work!

    Tell you what, why don't we all speak Irish on this thread from now on to prove that point.. ceapaim thú?


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  • #61
    murphaph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,031 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    There's really little point debating the rights and wrongs of enforcing a policy of bilingual signage. We all know it's here to stay. There's simply no way (politically) that Ireland is going to move to mono-lingual signage as Wales & Scotland moves in the other direction.

    So, we either do bilingual signage as well as we can do it or we don't. That is the choice we have. I do not for one second believe that our current approach is anywhere near best practice. We have no system of signage, no holistic approach designed from the ground up. We have taken a great, perhaps the greatest system of road signage in the world and butchered it. I'd love to meet the character (actually likely some committee of course) who had the notion first to just uppercase the English place names and then the character who came along a few years later and decided that the Irish placenames should for some random reason be italicised. None of these things were done by designers, that's for sure.

    I believe that we should design a system of road signage that takes account of the political reality that bilingual road signs are here to stay. I don't think the attempts at bilingual road signs made in Wales & Scotland are all that great to be honest. They attempt to tinker with Kinneir & Calvert's as little as possible and to be honest I think if Calvert was given the task of designing the system again with bilingualism in mind that she'd do things a little differently. The brilliance of the original system that she and Kinneir designed was that it was all-encompassing, holistic. They designed absolutely every sign new from scratch and so there's a consistent look and feel to it all. I think the pair of them would be very disappointed with the Welsh attempt at bilingual signage in particular...same font and same colour for place names in both languages....disaster.

    The main problem is that most people, including sadly the decision makers, believe that road signage should be just drawn on some CAD package, not actually designed to be as effective as possible at conveying the essential information efficiently.


  • #62
    An Coilean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,285 ✭✭✭An Coilean


    Richard wrote: »
    Even worse is Irish only warning and information signs. STOP is STOP in most of the world, yet in the Gaeltacht it's "STAD".

    Its to promote natural selection, they dont like stupid people who can't recognise a big red octagon in the Gaeltacht.


  • #63
    slimjimmc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,786 ✭✭✭slimjimmc


    Richard wrote: »
    Even worse is Irish only warning and information signs. STOP is STOP in most of the world, yet in the Gaeltacht it's "STAD".
    Nothing wrong with it, it fully complies with the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
    The Convention allows for the word "STOP" to be in either English or the national language of the particular country.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_sign
    Ireland is not unique in having non-English language stop signs.


  • #64
    mackerski
    Registered Users Posts: 2,281 ✭✭✭mackerski


    slimjimmc wrote: »
    Ireland is not unique in having non-English language stop signs.

    We might be unique in not legislating for them but using them anyway.


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