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Irish street names vs British street names

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  • 01-04-2013 3:49am
    #1
    Mahogany
    Closed Accounts Posts: 343 ✭✭


    Has anyone noticed that in Britain EVERY road, street even alleyways have their own name, where as in Ireland a group of houses share the same address.

    Anyone know the reasons why we didn't follow that way of naming?


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    #2
    HondaSami
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,713 ✭✭✭HondaSami


    You on about house in the country? towns are the same here as they are in the UK.


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    #3
    orestes
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭orestes


    We don't have streets, we have roads.


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    #4
    SolarFlash
    Registered Users Posts: 109 ✭✭SolarFlash


    They should send out and army of people to take a gps reading of every building in the county and that anymore would be your address so instead of this being an address

    Thomas O'Brien
    66 Newport Road
    Innisfreetown
    Co Mayo

    Your address instead would be simply

    7654GHYHYFDFH67997654G


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    #5
    Mahogany
    Closed Accounts Posts: 343 ✭✭Mahogany


    No, I mean, say for example you have a housing estate in Ireland, a lot of the time the whole estate shares the same name eg. Killinarden. in Britain, every road in the estate would have a different name.


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    #6
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Mahogany wrote: »
    No, I mean, say for example you have a housing estate in Ireland, a lot of the time the whole estate shares the same name eg. Killinarden. in Britain, every road in the estate would have a different name.

    It's not 100% the case here. In Listowel I know there's an estate called Dromin Green which is as you say, but in Santry there's the Northwood campus and the roads in there are named. Such as Northwood Road, Northwood Crescent, Northwood Avenue, etc.


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    #7
    DylanII
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,102 ✭✭✭DylanII


    Mahogany wrote: »
    No, I mean, say for example you have a housing estate in Ireland, a lot of the time the whole estate shares the same name eg. Killinarden. in Britain, every road in the estate would have a different name.

    Would it not be Killinarden Road, Way, Avenue, Parade, Park etc?

    I assume your not looking for them to all have different names like killinarden road is beside Mallahide avenue and Stepaside Park? If that is what you are talking about then the reason is because its stupid. Its better to have a name for a general area and then a street name? So if your address is 36 Cherrywood Ave, Lucan. You know to go to lucan then find cherrywood and then inside cherrywood there will be a cherrywood avenue. It just makes it easier.


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    #8
    Mahogany
    Closed Accounts Posts: 343 ✭✭Mahogany


    DylanII wrote: »
    Would it not be Killinarden Road, Way, Avenue, Parade, Park etc?

    Nope, the whole things called Killinarden Estate.


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    #9
    Kevhog1988
    Registered Users Posts: 3,979 ✭✭✭Kevhog1988


    im convinced the town planner in manchester is irish... i live on clifden road and last week saw a connemara road and dingle road


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    #10
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,413 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    We prefer to have magical mystery tour looking for a house number rather than a convenient road name or horror of horrors a post code.


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    #11
    holystungun9
    Registered Users Posts: 2,933 ✭✭✭holystungun9


    Mahogany wrote: »
    Nope, the whole things called Killinarden Estate.

    The reality is that people will either refer to it as 'the estate' or more probably 'kipville'. Just one of those glitches in the matrix.


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    #12
    mike65
    Closed Accounts Posts: 88,978 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    kneemos wrote: »
    We prefer to have magical mystery tour looking for a house number rather than a convenient road name or horror of horrors a post code.

    Yeah but if there is a post code we will have a post code lottery and this is a bad thing apparently.


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    #13
    gallag
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,355 ✭✭✭gallag


    Does Ireland not use a post code system?


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    #14
    Annasopra
    Registered Users Posts: 40,980 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    Mahogany wrote: »
    Has anyone noticed that in Britain EVERY road, street even alleyways have their own name, where as in Ireland a group of houses share the same address.

    Anyone know the reasons why we didn't follow that way of naming?

    No. I've never noticed this.

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



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    #15
    Annasopra
    Registered Users Posts: 40,980 ✭✭✭✭Annasopra


    gallag wrote: »
    Does Ireland not use a post code system?

    not yet

    It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.

    Terry Pratchet



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    #16
    Duggys Housemate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    Anyone get the impression that if we had named sub parts of our estates with street and alley names, and the British didn't we'd be hearing about the efficiency of their system, and the awkwardness of ours.

    In any case we do use the British system in modern developments. Tyrellstown is a maze of different addresses and street names.

    It's all moot in the era of GPS and Google maps but driving into an estate where the numbers are increasing in order and lanes, or side roads have signs saying 100-200 This Estate is probably easier than looking for 7 Moonview Avenue, half a mile from 7 Moonview Crescent, and nowhere near 7 Moonview Road in the same estate. Locals don't even know these names.


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    #17
    awec
    Administrators Posts: 53,487 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    gallag wrote: »
    Does Ireland not use a post code system?
    Dublin sort of has one, but they are districts rather than per-street.


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    #18
    Sandwlch
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,066 ✭✭✭Sandwlch


    Mahogany wrote: »
    Has anyone noticed that in Britain EVERY road, street even alleyways have their own name, where as in Ireland a group of houses share the same address.

    Anyone know the reasons why we didn't follow that way of naming?

    So if the Brits do it one way, we should too ?

    Separate countries since 1922 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Free_State


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    #19
    seanm92
    Closed Accounts Posts: 152 ✭✭seanm92


    Sandwlch wrote: »
    So if the Brits do it one way, we should too ?

    Separate countries since 1922 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Free_State

    here we go...


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    #20
    Chop Chop
    Closed Accounts Posts: 343 ✭✭Chop Chop


    Mahogany wrote: »
    Nope, the whole things called Killinarden Estate.

    I thought it was kippenarden? Right beside fetterjobcairn-munfield-fermot


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    #21
    mathepac
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,991 ✭✭✭mathepac


    I dunno about urban "planning" or what passes for it here, but in rural Ireland every field, hillock, bend in the road, gateway, cross-roads, junction has its own unique and characterful name.

    My own extended family are proud keepers of a piece of the landscape referred to as Knockroe (An Cnoc Rua, the Red Hill) because the bracken / ferns go rust-coloured at certain times of the year. Knockroe is in the middle of a field called Mainsiter (Monastery) which has in opposing corners wells / springs called Monastery Well (Tobar na Mainistreach) and Powlawadra.

    I thinks the Brits and town-dwellers miss out on a lot. Post-codes? No thanks, I prefer the Dog's Hole.


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    #22
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,120 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    mathepac wrote: »
    I thinks the Brits and town-dwellers miss out on a lot. Post-codes? No thanks, I prefer the Dog's Hole.

    It's not just the Brits that have post codes. Most of the civilized world has them.


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    #23
    fasttalkerchat
    Registered Users Posts: 5,652 ✭✭✭fasttalkerchat


    Its fine to have separate names if you can drive through a central road andhave all the streets to your left and right. Some estates have 2 places with almost identical names and some have a star shape with no way of knowing where to find a set of 10 houses


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    #24
    goose2005
    Registered Users Posts: 4,798 ✭✭✭goose2005


    kneemos wrote: »
    We prefer to have magical mystery tour looking for a house number rather than a convenient road name or horror of horrors a post code.

    Sure post codes were just brought in to help the Black and Tans find your house. Or something.


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    #25
    Duggys Housemate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    goose2005 wrote: »
    Sure post codes were just brought in to help the Black and Tans find your house. Or something.

    Post codes are not related to this thread.

    So, assuming the OP is correct, the only question is whether estates with dozens of different street names are more efficient than estates with numbers. I don't think so. Sometimes stuff in the UK isn't better.


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    #26
    pabloh999
    Registered Users Posts: 516 ✭✭✭pabloh999


    orestes wrote: »
    We don't have streets, we have roads.


    Dame st? Dorset st?
    Streets in city centre, roads when outside city centre.


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    #27
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,413 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Duggys Housemate wrote: »
    Post codes are not related to this thread.

    So, assuming the OP is correct, the only question is whether estates with dozens of different street names are more efficient than estates with numbers. I don't think so. Sometimes stuff in the UK isn't better.

    If your looking at a map it's much more efficient.


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    #28
    gallag
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,355 ✭✭✭gallag


    It has to make using sat nav harder? I am used to puting a post code in only.


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    #29
    Duggys Housemate
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,298 ✭✭✭Duggys Housemate


    kneemos wrote: »
    If your looking at a map it's much more efficient.

    Is it? maybe. If you are driving around the estate, less so.

    I think this isn't Irish vs English. It's old vs new housing estates. People want to have streets on their postal address so they don't seem to be in an estate.


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    #30
    Peregrine
    Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    In Dublin all the roads in suburbian estates have similar names like Cedarwood Avenue, Cedarwood Park, Cedarwood Grove, Cedarwood Road and Cedarwood Green in Finglas. In inner city, the estates are much smaller and they tend to have different names like Joyce Road, Flemming Road, Walsh Road and Ferguson Road in an estate beside Griffith Park.
    gallag wrote: »
    Does Ireland not use a post code system?

    Not currently, Dublin has postal districts from Dublin 1 to 24. But they're introducing it soon. Loc8 is finished but An Post has to adopt it


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    #31
    Andrew_Doran
    Registered Users Posts: 227 ✭✭Andrew_Doran


    awec wrote: »
    Dublin sort of has one, but they are districts rather than per-street.

    The postal district system was in operation for the big cities pre-independence. We didn't follow on with post codes. Notice that the prefixes "D" and "C" are not used in the British postcode system.


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