Do you get annoyed when people say 'Eire'?

...when they're speaking English? I've never heard an Irish person do it, but it seems to be common in the UK. I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious. Nobody would say 'I had a great week in Deutschland', would they? I've even been corrected when I've said I'm going to Ireland - 'which bit of Ireland? Do you mean Eire?' No, I mean Ireland.

What do you think?

Mint Sauce

Honestly dont think I have ever had some one refer to it as Eire when talking to me.

Sky King

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

What do you think?

I think that if people stopped calling it Eire Eircom would have to change their name to Irlcom which just sounds stupid.

Chucken

Its the Irish name for the island so I've no problem with anyone using it.

...never have heard anyone using it though.(in the context of the op)

TheLB

You can't blame the British, we send all our stamps with Éire writen on it. Anyways, it dosn't bother me.

cantdecide

A lot of people in Britain might think of Northern Ireland first and consequently, IME, consider Northern Ireland to be 'Ireland'. Meanwhile the Republic has had to be renamed...

kneemos

Always thought Eire meant the republic.

Latchy

I only time I have heard English people use the word 'EIRE' in conversation with me is in the historical context ie '' EIRE was neutral during world war to '' ( then you explain that Nazi submarines were still sinking Irish merchant ships to ) but I never have ,nor ever will ,be annoyed by anybody referring to Southern Ireland / The Republic of Ireland as Eire .

Ziphius

TheLB wrote: »

You can't blame the British, we send all our stamps with Éire writen on it. Anyways, it dosn't bother me.

Yup, and our passports and coins.

As has already been mentioned it's probably used (not just by the British) to distinguish the Republic from the other Ireland.

Almaviva

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

...when they're speaking English? I've never heard an Irish person do it, but it seems to be common in the UK. I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious. Nobody would say 'I had a great week in Deutschland', would they? I've even been corrected when I've said I'm going to Ireland - 'which bit of Ireland? Do you mean Eire?' No, I mean Ireland.

What do you think?

Not comparable to your 'Deutchland' comparison at all which is just a translation. 'Eire' is a clarification.

Certainly not pretentious. Its a reasonable clarification, when we Eire-ans were a bit cheeky to hijack the name of this island to use as the name of our country - when there are two different nations on the island - and expect that every one else would play ball.

At work I deal with a lot of UK companies - their more usual clarification is asking 'Southern or Northern', though some would ask 'is that Eire' when I give the address.

mfceiling

Do you get annoyed when people say 'Eire'?





No.

orestes

In years of travelling and working in tourism with thousands of people from all over the world I have never once heard a single person use the word Eire.

hatrickpatrick

Why the hell would this irritate anyone? O_o

Chucken

John Lennon airport in Liverpool has an arrivals area for "Eire and Channel Islands"...which is hilarious really because without the fada, "eire" means - a burden, load or encumbrance....;)

Con Logue

Accurate use of names isn't the Other Island's strong point. I have regularly got Eire, pronounced Air or Air-uh and Southern Ireland down through the years. There really isn't any point in correcting them.

My favourite back in the early nineties was being asked if Dublin was in Northern Ireland or Southern Ireland and what was it like growing up in a war zone. In Kildare.

srsly78

I don't get annoyed, it is after all the proper name of the country in it's native language.

You hear it more often in the UK than here surprisingly. It was used a lot in historical context (Churchill's speeches for example) so I suppose that popularised the phrase.

What does annoy me tho is "Southern Ireland" - a country that does not exist (no matter what Cork thinks).

biko

No, I get surprised though.

Evolutionary Guy

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

...when they're speaking English? I've never heard an Irish person do it, but it seems to be common in the UK. I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious. Nobody would say 'I had a great week in Deutschland', would they? I've even been corrected when I've said I'm going to Ireland - 'which bit of Ireland? Do you mean Eire?' No, I mean Ireland.

What do you think?

Maybe if the "people" have a problem with this name then start with our constitution. .... even the English language preamble to Bunreacht na hÉireann says: 'We, the people of Éire,...do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution'.

rubadub

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious.

I always guessed they thought it was the preferred term and/or are showing that they know the word. I presume them to be trying to be respectful rather than pretentious.

You see it used on postal addresses from the UK a lot too, but english versions of place names on the first bit of the address. I have heard this is the wrong thing to do, it should be the opposite if anything, it makes sense to have the country in your native lanuage, to help your native postal workers who would read from the bottom up, they would then deliver to the countries depot and let them sort it out. Then they would helpfully be using the main language of the country they are sending to (in which case no Irish at all). I doubt they put down Deutschland on mail to Germany, but would be more helpful to have straße rather than street.

Skid X

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

...when they're speaking English? I've never heard an Irish person do it, but it seems to be common in the UK. I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious. Nobody would say 'I had a great week in Deutschland', would they? I've even been corrected when I've said I'm going to Ireland - 'which bit of Ireland? Do you mean Eire?' No, I mean Ireland.

What do you think?

Yeah, it seems to be common in England to say Eire, when trying to distinguish The Republic from the North. You could hear worse things, but I suppose if I was hearing it all the time it would annoy me. A bit.

gobnaitolunacy

Only sounds right using Eire or Eireann whilst speaking 'as Gaelige', or if it was part of a company name, say.

Otherwise you would sound like a pre-war British newsreel.

WakeUp

Eire is the Irish name for the island of Ireland. Its derived from the word Eriu matron goddess of Ireland and sovereignty. So what exactly is the problem again?

Diabhal Beag

I can only ever think of somebody saying 'Eire' in a really old-timey voice from the 1920's.

Skid X

WakeUp wrote: »

Eire is the Irish name for the island of Ireland. Its derived from the word Eriu matron goddess of Ireland and sovereignty. So what exactly is the problem again?

You only use the word Eire when speaking Irish. When you speak English you say Ireland.

srsly78

English has a long tradition of borrowing Irish words, is this not ok anymore?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Irish_origin

salmocab

I always use Eire if I fill out my address when abroad when I check into hotels etc, not sure why but I think it probably just started because I'm usually tired and in a hurry to be done but could be to try and get an argument going. A girl I used to go out with from Wales once called Dublin, Dub, I think it was because I talked about going to Dubs games that really sounded strange.

Solair

Why would I get annoyed? They're going to the extreme effort of pronouncing something in Irish!

They think they're being politically correct by using the term Éire.

I get really annoyed when non British people start insisting that I'm from the UK though.

I got it once from a Belgian (in Belgium) she insisted that I was just making a political point by refusing to write down UK as my place of Birth.

I just pointed out that it was really nice to be visiting France!

Fr_Dougal

As my grandpappy, the tinker Flatley would say 'grand saft day in Eire today' begorra.

Legs.Eleven

Amari Flaky Rocker wrote: »

...when they're speaking English? I've never heard an Irish person do it, but it seems to be common in the UK. I'm always being asked if I'm 'heading back to Eire' for a weekend and things like that. It sounds weird to me and comes off as really pretentious. Nobody would say 'I had a great week in Deutschland', would they? I've even been corrected when I've said I'm going to Ireland - 'which bit of Ireland? Do you mean Eire?' No, I mean Ireland.

What do you think?

It's a specifically English thing and yes, I heard it quite a few times in my 3 years there and it would irritate me and I've no idea why.I suppose it was in their (probably imagined) delivery. I was similarly irritated by "Are you from the North or South?" to which I responded, "East" and was met with blank looks.


I'm less irritable about those kinds of things now (except being referred to as British by almost every single Spanish person I've met here). I'm trying to learn to chill the fook out about these things.

Legs.Eleven

Solair wrote: »

Why would I get annoyed? They're going to the extreme effort of pronouncing something in Irish!

They think they're being politically correct by using the term Éire.

I get really annoyed when non British people start insisting that I'm from the UK though.

I got it once from a Belgian (in Belgium) she insisted that I was just making a political point by refusing to write down UK as my place of Birth.

I just pointed out that it was really nice to be visiting France!

I understand your frustration but you end up looking like a dimwit then. Kind of backfires a bit.

Mr.Fred

I do get annoyed when people spell it Eire. It's Éire :pac::cool: