Monday, July 18, 2005

Google Maps As Gaeilge

I just noticed that Google maps have added some more towns and cities to their map and now half the place names in Ireland are appearing in Irish.

Map of Ireland

While I appreciate the effort I imagine there will be some confused tourists. I would have thought someone was playing a practical joke on Google, but Derry is called Londonderry and not Free Derry

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you are alittle confused, sonny.Derry (Doire) is the official name of the city and Londonderry is the name of the county.
Also there is legislation and new maps to go with it which requires certain places to be named only in their Irish version.
In the North, Irish is now official under the Charter for indigenous minority languages and is recognsed in placenames even those of Townlands, See the OS Pointer facility. Need I go on?

Anonymous said...

I also disagree with your view.

They are not including Irish names with an intention to confuse tourist.

They are applying the official names for places.

What has happened over the past number of years, is that for the first time the state has begun to recognize the locally applied names in Gaeltactai, rather than enforce the English name on roadsigns and maps.

If you apply the same in reverse, it is the same as the Government stopping a policy of demanding that Dublin be called Baile Atha Cliath on all Maps.

The change allows Irish speaking areas to see roadsigns which correlate to what they call their towns.

Much as Munich is signposted Munchen in Germany etc.