Comments on: Fógra: Tourists Beware!

By: Rhys

Rhys — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:15:44 +0000

Just visited this site from the Irish Blog Awards site (congrats)

I’m not having a go or anything, and I fully understand the concerns you have, but I notice that on your company website you only seem to mention the name ‘Dingle’, on the various pages that mention the place (Store location, About us etc).

Having customers getting lost etc is not good for business (either for yourselves or other businesses), but maybe if everyone did their bit raising awareness of the name ‘change’, it would reduce any negative impact?

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:15:24 +0000

The Gaeltacht in Cork appears to be a law unto itself. Not only are signs outside this area displaying “Ballyvourney”, but the signs in the village itself are also Bi-lingual.

It should be one way or the other, not varying from gaeltacht to gaeltacht.

By: copernicus

copernicus — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 00:05:11 +0000

It’s like a Soviet photoshopping (didn’t there used to be more Politburo guys in that picture?)

I’ve been following the Dingle/Daingean debate for a bit, but I have to say I actually find those photos disturbing. There’s a contempt and arrogance at work there which makes me very unhappy.

And it’s quite obvious with whom it originates.

By: Kieran

Kieran — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:11:40 +0000

No worries, Sheila, and thanks for the RTE tip…

Thanks, Ron, and sorry to miss you, but I am delighted you had a great holiday. It’s a shame that you didn’t find our bi-lingual local map with a handy conversation guide! (We give them away free in the shop).

By: Ron Quimby

Ron Quimby — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:57:39 +0000

Kieran,

As you know we have just completed 10 days on the Dingle Peninsula and we have no Irish training. I would say that it took us a couple of days to start to know our way around the road signs. We were aware that the English place names would not be displayed before we came.

I’m sure that there will be problems for those non-Irish who are doing Dingle (Kerry) for just a day or two.

One of the things that I said more than once while we were there was that I wished that there was an Irish to English cheat sheet available. We were very interested in the historic sites listed on the Ord. maps and found that they were mostly in Irish.

None the less, we had the most wonderful 10 day vacation that we have ever had. Sorry that you and I did not meet up, but very much enjoyed our time with your brother and your Dad.

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:33:59 +0000

Oh, and for Helen in VA – you know that you can listen to RaidiÃ³ na Gaeltachta on RTE.ie, and even cooler, you can watch web TV of TG4 (TG4.ie) – which always helps with the language! Ros na RÃºn!

By: Sheila

Sheila — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 14:38:05 +0000

Kieran, so sorry if my comment was taken in the wrong way – I did not read anything negative in the original post at all, and I do think it odd that the town names have been taped over. My response was just curiosity, since the subject of the language was raised, on whether in the stores in Gaeltacht areas you were using the language. I knew that you came from the US, and thought – wow – what a cool thing if they do speak Irish in their stores there! It would be a dream for me to be able to have a business there, and conduct it through Irish (and English, of course). And thanks for keeping an ear to the ground on NYC Munster dialect speakers – there are some that I know of in the outer-buroughs, and in Westchester, and other surrounding areas, but Manhattan – not yet!

By: Kieran

Kieran — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:24:27 +0000

Thanks, Helen, and yes. We have three main sources of employment here. Farming is under threat and declining. Fishing is under threat and declining. Threaten tourism, and there might not be anyone left in these parts to keep the Irish language going!