Road signs & Gaelic - time for a change?

JaysusMacfeck

As Ireland moves further and further away from independence, and as the Gaelic language gradually becomes extinct, it is about time that the Gaelic clutter on our signage is phased out?

Here's a classic example. The old green sign with interesting Gaelic script, and the modern blue sign with the visually bland italics – italics which are gradually replacing all these old signs.



As a modern ex-British colony with very little Irish culture left, isn't it about time we reflect our current status as people?

Coileach dearg

You complete dickhead. Have you a shred of shame in that airhead of yours. Irish is my first language and I am proud to be able to speak it.
I suppose you want the National Anthem changed as well.
I feel so angry when people spout sh!te like this. I really wish I could have a face to face conversation with the likes of you to find out your morals.
Imagine, this is the kind of Country Ireland has become. I feel sorry for you to be honest.

andrew

irish is and always will be a part of our culture.always.

I don't see any Gaelic on our road signs, are you confusing us with Scotland?

Zonko

Well, why don't we just go the whole hog and beg the UK to take us back while we're at it?

Ruu_Old

Coileach dearg wrote:

You complete dickhead. Have you a shred of shame in that airhead of yours. Irish is my first language and I am proud to be able to speak it.
I suppose you want the National Anthem changed as well.
I feel so angry when people spout sh!te like this. I really wish I could have a face to face conversation with the likes of you to find out your morals.
Imagine, this is the kind of Country Ireland has become. I feel sorry for you to be honest.

Attack the post, not the poster. Less of the personal abuse, thanks. Carry on.

I don't see a problem with the signs, leave them as they are.

Pherekydes

Put another option in your poll:

Phase English out of all road signs

I don't recall France having bilingual signs.

Kojak

The signs should be left as they are - irish is our national language, even if most of us don't use it (that's another discussion altogether) and thus irish should appear on the road signs

Giblet

Actually I've just banned Coileach dearg, from reading past posts, not much of a contributer.

aidan_walsh

Slow coach wrote:

Put another option in your poll:

Phase English out of all road signs

I don't recall France having bilingual signs.

The French constitution probably doesn't mention two national languages.

monkeyfudge

Slow coach wrote:

Put another option in your poll:

Phase English out of all road signs

I don't recall France having bilingual signs.

I don't recall France speaking English predominantly as their first language.

It think the signs are fine as they are.

Léan

First of all it's Irish, not "Gaelic", second of all, it is inshrined in our national constituion that it is one of our national languages. Shut up jaffa man.

Dave!

They're fine as they are

Pherekydes

monkeyfudge wrote:

I don't recall France speaking English predominantly as their first language.

It think the signs are fine as they are.

I was being facetious. These polls are never well thought out. Some idiot always thinks of another option.

Giblet

Léan banned.

Mossy Monk

Irish is dying out? i thought it was becoming more popular again

leave the signs be

Hagar

Slow coach wrote:

I don't recall France having bilingual signs.

They are everywhere in Provence.
There are dual language signs, French and Provencal, at the entrance to all towns and villages which have historic names such as "La Garde Freinet" is also signed as "La Gardi" with equal size lettering and script.

Who said bilingual had to be English and another language? The arrogance of that nation is astounding.

Sam Vimes

Slow coach wrote:

I was being facetious. These polls are never well thought out. Some idiot always thinks of another option.

that's where atari jaguar comes in

Hagar

BTW could all the Gaelgeoirs keep themselves in check please. We've lost two in this thread alone. We have enough martyrs, we need more thinkers and doers. Cop on and work smart.

Mó dhá phingin.

admiralofthefleet

i think irish and english should have equal status on signposts, the irish language is part of our identity, culture and from a tourism point of view i think it is cool that tourists can see placenames, etc. in the national language of the country that they are visiting

drivealive

i think we should do away with the english place names altogether,sure they only add to the confusion of trying to get around.

Pherekydes

Hagar wrote:

Who said bilingual had to be English and another language? The arrogance of that nation is astounding.

Chill, man. I was the one who mentioned France and bilingual signs, and it was obvious that I meant English and French. (It's to do with the thread)

mike65

What bugs me is Irish only signs in areas NOT in the Gaeltacht, ie on the N25 outside Dungarvan which point towards An Rinn, but do so in the English speaking part of Ireland.

Mike.

Pherekydes

mike65 wrote:

What bugs me is Irish only signs in areas NOT in the Gaeltacht, ie on the N25 outside Dungarvan which point towards An Rinn, but do so in the English speaking part of Ireland.

Mike.

Last time I checked (constitution, etc.) the whole island is English speaking, and the southern side is officially bilingual.

looksee

Hagar wrote:

Who said bilingual had to be English and another language? The arrogance of that nation is astounding.

What?!!


and JaysusMcFecker was winding for a reaction and he got one.

Hagar

At least you didn't say chillax.:rolleyes:

It may have been obvious what you ment, but you didn't know that the French had bilingual signs of any type. Did you? You just threw out an unsubstantiated statement and I rebutted it. No big deal, it's only the interweb.;)

The bilingual signs in France are a good parallel as they are helping to keep alive a traditional language which is part of its heritage. The region would be poorer without them in much the same way Ireland would be poorer without ours.

iFight

Should be only Irish on roadsigns, all placenames changed back etc

looksee

mike65 wrote:

What bugs me is Irish only signs in areas NOT in the Gaeltacht, ie on the N25 outside Dungarvan which point towards An Rinn, but do so in the English speaking part of Ireland.

Mike.

An Rinn is a Gaeltacht.

JaysusMacfeck

Giblet wrote:

Actually I've just banned Coileach dearg, from reading past posts, not much of a contributer.

Please DO NOT ban "Coileach dearg", I did not take his post as a personal attack.

Coileach dearg wrote:

Imagine, this is the kind of Country Ireland has become.

Unfortunately, this is was Ireland has become. Don't get me wrong, I like Gaelic, but the people abandonded it a long, long time ago in favour of English. English is still the prefereable language in Ireland, the majority of Irish people dislike Gaelic.

Giblet wrote:

Léan banned.

Please unban this user. I did not take any offense to his post.

bluewolf wrote:

I don't see any Gaelic on our road signs, are you confusing us with Scotland?

Gaelic is the name of the language to the majority the Irish diaspora. Calling the language 'Irish' is only political. "Irish" people speak -English- and less than 1% speak Gaelic. Unlike Welsh - the majority of Welsh people speak Welsh so it deserves to be called after the people.

Zonko wrote:

Well, why don't we just go the whole hog and beg the UK to take us back while we're at it?

Neither the UK or Ireland would benifit from reunification. It's far too late now.

admiralgar wrote:

i think irish and english should have equal status on signposts, the irish language is part of our identity, culture and from a tourism point of view i think it is cool that tourists can see placenames, etc. in the national language of the country that they are visiting

The goverment became worried that tourists would get confused between the two so they reduced the visual impact of Gaelic - which it a bit silly really as the language of a country is a part of tourism, is it not?

mike65

Slow coach wrote:

Last time I checked (constitution, etc.) the whole island is English speaking, and the southern side is officially bilingual.

Okay then the sign should read

An Rinn
Ring

Mike.

Giblet

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

stuff

Not your decision, sorry.

Pherekydes

Hagar wrote:

At least you didn't say chillax.:rolleyes:

It may have been obvious what you ment, but you didn't know that the French had bilingual signs of any type. Did you?

I did. They have them in Bretagne, too.

Hagar

And for the very same cultural reasons. A Celtic speaking nation long subjugated/absorbed by another more powerful neigbour.

Since you knew this why say there were no bilingual signs in France? I expect you were limiting the term bilingual to English/Gaeilge but since you brought in France why deliberately conceal a relevent fact?

Unpossible

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

Calling the language 'Irish' is only political.

Well I can't reffer to it as Irish when Im abroad, everytime I say "we also have a language called Irish" the person always pipes up and says something along the lines of;
"Oh right, like a dialect of English!"
or (the classic)
"Oh yeah, I can understand it. It sounds a lot like english"
(where I have to point out that I'm speaking english to them and not Irish)

Pherekydes

That was just it, I was limiting the term to English/French. It all goes back to my first post, which was deliberately facetious.

crosstownk

I've no problem with road signage in Irish as long as its correct. If you travel from the Mill pub in Tallaght towards the M50, at the roundabout that intersects the Ballycullen Road, you will see on the roundabout that "Ballycullen Road" is signposted with "Bothar Teach na Guise" (Firhouse Road) as the Irish translation. I informed an SDCC councillor of this a few years back - but the sign remains.............

StickyMcGinty

look, the way the country is now is so that both gael goers and english speaking inhabitants both have equal status.... your post gets delivered in both languages, you ring a government department and you have the option of getting a reply in irish, all official publications are printed in irish

i think you should be happy with the status of Irish as our official language and not to look for more, i cant speak irish so i wouldnt be happy with road signs being all in irish. not because i dont want to speak it, but because i cant.

the way things are now is fair enough. until irish becomes the first language of more than 0.02% of the population thats the way it should stay

magick

You complete dickhead. Have you a shred of shame in that airhead of yours. Irish is my first language and I am proud to be able to speak it.
I suppose you want the National Anthem changed as well.

I approve this message

OfflerCrocGod

It reminds me of the millions of euro the EU wastes every year translating everything and employing an army of translators for all the languages it officially recognizes - €140 million on translators. I realize that Ireland doesn't spend anywhere as much as the EU but there must still be wastage with the regulations for mandatory Irish translations which are needed by no one. It will never stop though; Irish might be spoken by 0.00000001% of the population in the future but we will still waste funds translating - it's a depressing waste as our native language is English not Irish.

StickyMcGinty

our native languae is irish, our spoken language is english

spening the money translating everything is futile, spending the money on tG4 etc would have more effect. i'll never pick up an irish publication. simple as. i cant understand it!

i dont think anyone here has come up with a decent suggestion for what 140 million could be spent on to promote the irish language... its a non runner really

embee

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

As a modern ex-British colony with very little Irish culture left, isn't it about time we reflect our current status as people?

Our current status?

I hadn't realised we had stopped being Irish. I never did get that memo

KamiKazi

we're leaving irish on the signs until the welsh take welsh off their signs.

we'll teach those feckers yet.

Keedowah

the majority of Irish people dislike Gaelic.

Does anyone else disagree with this?

I think there should be another option on the poll -

In the Gaeltacht it should have the place-name in Irish with the English translation below in smaller letters and in the rest of the country it should be the opposite.

my 2 cents.

InFront

2 people banned on a thread about roadsigns!

I don't see any reason to spend money on changing road signage, and I'm pretty sure that if the decision was made to do so, a good proportion of the ~45% of people in favour of it would be complaining about the needless cost.
I just don't see the point. Changing the font on road signage is not going to revive the irish language. If you want the language, speak it.

Duff

Ah sure leave em as they are, what harm are they doin'??

JaysusMacfeck

VinnyL wrote:

your post gets delivered in both languages

Look, this is NOT the case. MY Gaelic is ****e, it's what I remember from school.

Cuir mé glaoch ar An Post cúpla lá o shin, níl aon Gaeilge ar an cailín sin. Scíobh mé litír go mise mé fhéin twice, they never ever arrived. Chuaigh mé go dtí Oifig an Phiost Sheancill agus duirt sí "We don't know Irish addresses so that's why it don't go trew". Go híontacht, great.

AN POST CAN'T DELIVER MY MAIL IN GAELIC. TWICE

you ring a government department and you have the option of getting a reply in irish

Ahahah, what? I said WHAT?

I just rang my local Garda station in Shankill. I said "Tá mé ag lorg ceadúnas tiomána, cabhair liom math sé do thoil é", the Garda hung up. THE GARDA HUNG UP :eek: THE GARDA ON THE PHONE LINE HUNG UP ON ME.

Goverment services in GAELIC are RARE. Let's face it, it's in our constitution but the fekin lingo is dead.

Sorry guys.

InFront

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

I just rang my local Garda station in Shankill. I said "Tá mé ag lorg ceadúnas tiomána, cabhair liom math sé do thoil é", the Garda hung up. THE GARDA HUNG UP :eek: THE GARDA ON THE PHONE LINE HUNG UP ON ME.

Well it's 2.40am...

StickyMcGinty

JaysusMacfeck wrote:

Look, this is NOT the case. MY Gaelic is ****e, it's what I remember from school.

Cuir mé glaoch ar An Post cúpla lá o shin, níl aon Gaeilge ar an cailín sin. Scíobh mé litír go mise mé fhéin twice, they never ever arrived. Chuaigh mé go dtí Oifig an Phiost Sheancill agus duirt sí "We don't know Irish addresses so that's why it don't go trew". Go híontacht, great.

AN POST CAN'T DELIVER MY MAIL IN GAELIC. TWICE

Ahahah, what? I said WHAT?

I just rang my local Garda station in Shankill. I said "Tá mé ag lorg ceadúnas tiomána, cabhair liom math sé do thoil é", the Garda hung up. THE GARDA HUNG UP :eek: THE GARDA ON THE PHONE LINE HUNG UP ON ME.

Goverment services in GAELIC are RARE. Let's face it, it's in our constitution but the fekin lingo is dead.

Sorry guys.

believe me, theres someone in every office who'll be able to talk to ye in irish

send a letter to yourself with your irish address and see where it goes.

JaysusMacfeck

VinnyL wrote:

send a letter to yourself with your irish address and see where it goes.

I've done this twice already, it was returned to me via the English address attatched inside the sealed letter. The post office bat said "we don't know Irish addresses so it don't go trew" :rolleyes: :eek: :rolleyes:

I've tested these things, beleive me, Gaelic addresses are not honoured via "The Post" service. On PUST my arce.

JaysusMacfeck

InFront wrote:

Well it's 2.40am...

Ni thuigeann tú do theanga fhéin, tabhair dom an t-am i ngaelic nxt time. :rolleyes:

Jesus christ lads, I HATED IRISH GAELIC in school and YET i'm the only person using what I remember. This was well over 10 years ago.

That's pretty fcking bad. :eek:

Pherekydes

I've never had a problem getting my post delivered when it's addressed "as Gaeilge".

And it's either Gaeilge or Irish. It's not Gaelic, as someone has already pointed out.