Éire - a faux pas?

Goodshape

Just having a quick look through Wikipedia's international List of faux pas (which is quite interesting anyway). One of the Irish entries is :

"Referring to the Republic of Ireland as Éire: although this is the official title of the state in the Irish language, it is considered an irksome and patronizing term used only by the English, though usually well-intentioned. Simply refer to the country as "Ireland" or "the Republic of Ireland"."

Personally, I quite like the name 'Éire' and certainly wouldn't consider it an irksome term or a faux pas. It might cause me to do a slight double-take, but only because it's not too often you hear it, maybe not often enough imo.

Is that just me? What do others think?

Matthewthebig

afaik my mum dislikes the name Éire.

mike65

*shakes head*

This must be the nth thread on this in the last 6 months.

Mike.

flogen

Well referring to it as Éire in an English sentence isn't really logical; the constitution states 'the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland'... so I'd say 'I'm from Ireland' rather than 'I'm from Éire.'

I wouldn't call it a faux pas, just mis-informed. Is it annoying? Not really (there was a thread about this before).
But it would be like saying 'I have a friend from Sasana' or 'I have a friend from Angleterre' (that is the french for England, isn't it?)

Ruu_Old

It doesn't bother me either way.

My head hurts, I'm going for a lay down.

Tabnabs

"an irksome and patronizing term used only by the English, though usually well-intentioned. Simply refer to the country as "Ireland" or "the Republic of Ireland".

I couldn't have put it better myself. A pet hate of mine.

Goodshape

mike65 wrote:

*shakes head*

This must be the nth thread on this in the last 6 months.

Mike.

Oops. Must have missed them :-/

shane86

Load of bollix some of those apparent mistakes. Anyone with sense knows the British Isles is a geographical term, like the Iberian penninsula or Eurasia. Add some real ones, like if your from abroad dont complain about how much we drink. That one gets me.

MrJoeSoap

Its just a word, use it if you want.

Wishbone Ash

flogen wrote:

Well referring to it as Éire in an English sentence isn't really logical;

Agree - almost as annoying as referring to our former legal tender as the "punt" when speaking in English.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

robinph

Wikipedia wrote:

# The Republic of Ireland shares many faux pas in common with the United Kingdom, many of which are listed below under the title United Kingdom.
# Treating Ireland as a subcategory or special case of the United Kingdom, rather than as a separate country, as is done in the previous line, is considered offensive by many Irish people.

MrJoeSoap

Genius, sounds like Uncyclopedia tbh! ^

Goodshape

The Scientist wrote:

If it offends you that much then Change it. Thats what wikipedia is for.

T.Sc.

Well, maybe I'll wait and see what the majority of people here think about it. Who am I to dictate what is or is not considered a faux pas by the masses?

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Agree - almost as annoying as referring to our former legal tender as the "punt" when speaking in English.

Ah now, that is clearly the most logical way of differentiating it from the British Pound (or sterling).

When we still used the Punt, heading into the north and asking "do you take the Punt?" was a lot more convenient than "do you take the Irish Pound?"

I'd accept that using Éire when speaking English is unwarranted though. But maybe more of a sign of respect to our differences than an sort of insult or derogatory term.

MrJoeSoap

The word Éire always reminds me of the number 32, and the phrase "Tiocfaidh ár lá" for some bizarre reason.

Hobbes

In Korea when I was pointing out where Ireland was on the map for my in-laws they said Eire. The missus kept saying "no its Ireland", but they said it in a good Irish accent. Gotta love those phonetic languages.

mickd

Eire is the official name for Ireland under the constitution. Its on your passport Can't see the problem with this Gaelic term for Ireland unless you have some sort of inferiority complex and don't like English people using it. Now if they used the term 'Free State' thats different.

An Ginearál

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Agree - almost as annoying as referring to our former legal tender as the "punt" when speaking in English.

It's called Hiberno-English, i.e. the dislect of English mostly spoken in Ireland, whereby certain words from the Irish language are used when speaking English, such as 'punt' and 'craic'.
In saying that though, I wouldn't say Éire when speaking in English, only in Irish. But I don't see it as offensive, particularly coming from an English person, as it shows they have some respect for our national language, unlike most Brits who consider it nothing more than the 'leprachaun language'.

flogen

mickd wrote:

Eire is the official name for Ireland under the constitution. Its on your passport Can't see the problem with this Gaelic term for Ireland unless you have some sort of inferiority complex and don't like English people using it. Now if they used the term 'Free State' thats different.

As I said above, it's actually Éire or Ireland in the English language.
See article 4

For whatever reasons I got a bit annoyed when English people would call Ireland Southern Ireland, in order to differenciate it from Northern Ireland, but that's another story all together.
It's not a faux pas, no-one should get annoyed about it but it's illogical to use it in an English sentence.

looksee

An Ginear&#225 wrote: »

... unlike most Brits who consider it nothing more than the 'leprachaun language'.

Do you have a source for that 'fact' ? :rolleyes:

An Ginearál

looksee wrote:

Do you have a source for that 'fact' ? :rolleyes:

Yes, it is a common known fact that 63.7% of the British population consider the Irish language the 'Leprachaun language'.
Of course I don't have a bloody source for it:rolleyes: . It's the impression I've gotten from a lot of the British people I've talked to and some articles written by British journalists. That said though, I've gotten a similar attitude from some Irish people too.

Goodshape

looksee wrote:

Do you have a source for that 'fact' ? :rolleyes:

It's an opinion expressed on a message board, not a fact.

":rolleyes:"

faceman

I prefer Eire to Ireland. It demonstrates our different culture while being part of the British Isles.

mike65

Oh Noes! :eek:

Mike.

Steyr

shane86 wrote:

like if your from abroad dont complain about how much we drink. That one gets me.

The British and Germans are in the top 3 in most alcohol consumed druing the year not us.

Capt'n Midnight

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Agree - almost as annoying as referring to our former legal tender as the "punt" when speaking in English.

you do know it was called that because it rhymes with "bank manager" don't you ?

éire is the official name of the state,
then again our neighbours seem to have problems distingishing UK/BG/England and regularly using one to describe another.

pvt. joker

I'm adding one to the US's list:

when you encounter an american outside of his/her homeland do not assume that is ok to discuss politics. Chances are that he/she just wants to relax and have a few beers as opposed to engaging in a lengthy political debate in a small pub 3000 miles away from home

Talliesin

The faux pas element comes from differences in nuance between what the speaker is trying to say and what the listener hears.

Some British speakers say "Éire" thinking "I am using the correct name for their country and hence being respectful".

Some Irish listeners hear "Éire" and think "S/he is using the correct Irish language name for my country because the correct English language form is 'Ireland' which is also the name for the entire island and they don't want to concede that we may have a legitimate claim to the occupied six counties."

I'm using the phrase "occupied six counties" as there is a correlation between how likely the Irish person in question is to use that term and how likely they are to infer such a sentiment behind a British person using the word "Éire" as above.

Ponster

In France, Éire is used almost everytime that a reference to the Republic is made, esp. in sporting events.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

mike65 wrote:

*shakes head*

This must be the nth thread on this in the last 6 months.

Mike.

i know.... not again please,

MADPhil

Remember those wonderful sketches called "Pathetic News" on Brendan Balfe's radio show on Saturdays a few years back? I think it was Joe Taylor who did the voice. They always referred to "Eire" and it's hard to hear it now without thinking about those shows.

P.S. For future reference, how do you type a fada on here?