Help-Gaelic road signs
 

Just read in my newspaper that English will not be seen on road signs in parts of Ireland anymore just Gaelic. I had gotten directions from www.theaa.com and everything was English. Any suggestions where to find directions in Gaelic and good maps?

Most good guide books to Ireland will list the Irish names of towns. Some are similar to the English names but others are quite different. You should note these as they may appear on road signs as well as on the front of buses. City buses in Dublin, for instance, sometimes have "An Lar" as a destination: it's useful to know that it's simply Irish for "city centre".

For those whose local paper doesn't carry the info or those who don't read a newspaper, you can find more at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...adsigns29.html

We traveled a good majoruty of the country last May-june(except for the North) The MAJORITY of the road signs are in English with the most exception on the western coastal towns Spidal, Rossveal etc.-these were all in Irish. Also we were told that people in Ireland refer to the language as Irish not Gaelic-does anyone know the reasoning or what Gaelic actually stands for?

I'm not sure what you mean by "what Gaelic stands for." There are three Gaelic languages. In English these are called Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic or Scottish Gaelic, and Manx (from the Isle of Man). Irish Gaelic is also referred to simply as Irish. Does this clear it up?

A distinction has been traditionally drawn between two types of Celtic languages, Gaelic (list as above) and Brythonic (Welsh, Breton, Cornish), just as there are groupings of cognate Latinate (French, Spanish, Italian), Germanic (German, Dutch) and Slavic (Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and so on) languages.

But there is a lot of disputation about the history and anthropology here, which I don't pretend to be on top of.

The story in the Seattle times is the same that appeared in USA today and a number of other papers. This sounds to be a big change. I posted something about it yesterday, but it seems to have disappeared. Siobhan said she had heard nothing of it in Ireland. The change is more widespread than just a few areas in Galway. It appears that English text has been banned in all Gaeltacht areas and the Ordinance survey map is required to comply with those name changes also. This should boost their sales. I know I'm going to pick one up. Should be a lot of fun!

Bill

I believe the poster is referring to an article I read last week in the Irish Independant (Available online) that certain sections of certain counties who are serious about maintaining thier Irish identity will be moving to have all roadsigns in What the natives refer to as "Irish". This will not take effect right away and their is some opposition from the tourism minister. In any event it would only take effect as I read it in a few areas, (mostly Donegal as I read it). I don't see the need for panic. Do your homework before you leave and the road markers such as N-21 and R-526 will be plainly marked (sometimes).

Forgot to add the time honored act of stopping to ask. I have done this numerous times on 8 trips to Ireland and Have always been politiely pointed in the right direction.

We had to stop the car and pull out the map with the Gaelic names for towns listed on it. Made it much easier to navigate in Connemara and surrounds.

The proposal is that in Gaeltacht (Irish speaking) areas all bilingual signs will be removed and signs will be in Irish only. As joolleeb mentioned, most signs in these areas are already Irish only anyway. The Gaeltacht areas are mainly on the western seaboard (Donegal, Galway, Kerry). As Irish is the predominant language in these areas the maps of Ireland most of the maps you will buy in the newsagents here will show both names already. If the propsed change is introduced it will not affect driving on major roads across the country but only driving around country areas in places like connemara.