Councillor uses poetic charm to highlight Irish place names

SINN Fein Cllr Pa Daly added poetic charm to the council chamber at Monday’s council meeting when he called on council management to have the Irish version of place names on road signs made bigger than the English version, as this would show the ‘real’ meaning of place names. For good measure, Cllr Daly delivered the following poem to accentuate his point before a hushed council chamber:

At a match in Gníomh go Leith

I asked a local to translate

But Just the anglicised version was he able to relate

A gníomh it is five acres

Go leith makes 7.5

But maintaining English spelling Means that the Gaelic is not alive

The spelling of gneeve

It pierced me like a thorn

But there was worse than that to come When I passed through Gattabawn.

Bhí ár teanga dúchas cosúil le Drúcht ar fud na tíre

Ach le brat an Béarla orainn tá na caora Scaipaithe ón Aoire.

Léigh mé faoi logainm

Agus go bhfuilid dofheicithe Agus cén fáth atá an . . . new version Clóite in aired.

The anglicised version is like An assault upon the ears

The placenames’ truth disguised By the Royal Engineers.

No the business interests say It is marketing and it’s nice But the colonisers grip

Is a stultifying device.

So we’re stuck with names like Beaufort Snave and Newtownsandes

And I’d be the first to say

That they do sound very grand. But I’m for Lios a Phúca

Snámh, Maigh Mheán agus cathair saidhbhín Cill Orglan, An Gleann gCearr Gleann beithe agus an Bealach Oisín

But look around the country

To the towns that bucked the trend Have visitors to Port Laoise Driven down a dead end?

Have trucks for Dún Laoghaire Failed to catch the ferry

Or misread the road signs

And for the road to . . . Londonderry?

We can see there has been an erosion of tradition

Brian Friel called it a sort of eviction

The Seanachas in Kerry we like to hold so tight But the title of our placenames was where we lost the fight

To the empires engineers who came from over the waves

Now we should take action our heritage to save.

Cllr Daly concluded: “I’m asking councillors and management to do what’s surely right and the colonisers legacy at last we’ll surely spite. withstand the business interests, ignore the greasy purse and rid us for all time of this colonisers curse.”

Tralee Municipal District Sinn Féin Councillor Pat Daly who made a poetic contribution to a council debate on the use of the Irish language at Monday’s meeting.