Enniscrone makes plea for an end to confusion over its spelling
CATHAL MULLANEY REPORTS ON AN ISSUE THAT’S EXERCISING THE MINDS OF A WEST SLIGO SEASIDE TOWN -IT’S NAME AND HOW LOCALS WANT TO CHANGE IT TO ENNISCRONE FROM INISHCRONE
The people of Enniscrone – officially known as Inishcrone - are hopeful that they will get an opportunity to vote in a plebiscite to change the official name of the town later in 2018.
That was the message that emerged from a public meeting held in the Diamond Coast
Hotel in the seaside town last
Thursday evening, where approximately 300 locals turned out to back the local campaign to change the official name from Inishcrone to the widely-used Enniscrone.
This would also involve the changing of the official Irish name of the town to Inis Eiscir Abhann from Inis Crabhann.
Work has been ongoing on the issue for some time but could now come to a head later in the year if Sligo County Council agree to hold a plebiscite for locals to have their say.
A motion calling on the council to set a date for a vote is set to come before the March meeting of the council.
There is precedent for such ballots: Dingle in Kerry and Knock in Mayo have also gone through similar processes.
There is a groundswell of support for the change in the west Sligo community, where locals say the name causes confusion and difficulties for business and tourism in the area.
“It has taken the guts of 11 months to get to where we are now, and what we want now really is action,” said Sinead Durkan, a member of
MANY SATELITE NAVIGATION DEVICES DON’T FEATURE THE ENNISCRONE VERSION WHILE EIRCODE IS ALSO PROBLEMATIC
the special placename committee that was set up in April 2017.
“Everything centres around tourism here, and our real problem is the lack of visibility. Enniscrone and Inishcrone may seem fine for an Irish ear or eye, but for a tourist coming in from a different country, they come in and don’t read the signs the same way as we do, so that causes a big problem for us.
“The official name – Inishcrone – also impacts the way social media responds so every map and Google Map when you look for Enniscrone with an E, you don’t find it, so tourists can’t find us.”
People in the area widely use the Enniscrone version – local sports clubs, schools and businesses all use this version - but Inishcrone is what appears on road signs and maps.
The Inishcrone version was enshrined as the official name of the town in the 1970s by An tOrdú Logainmneacha, but locals were largely unaware of the change until road signs began to appear with this variation of the name in the 1990s.
Research conducted by Muredach Tuffy, who gave a detailed presentation to the attendance on the history of the name of the town, revealed that this has been a problem for many years, but an E was used to spell the town name as far back as the 1600s.
“The research started about five years ago,” Muredach, a native of the area, explained.
“It started around the time the Jackie Clarke collection opened in Ballina. When I looked at the maps, I noticed different spellings for Ennis- crone on the various maps.
“My fear is that if we don’t correct the name, when people research the town in 30-50 years’ time they will fail to connect the proper records from the past with the town.”
The different variations of the name are especially difficult for tourists to the area to understand.
Many satellite navigation devices don’t feature the Enniscrone version, while Eircode is also problematic.
According to locals, this is having a negative impact on tourism in the popular coastal town which attracts thousands of visitors every year.
“Enniscrone Golf Links is one of the leading golf links in the world, and we bring visitors into Enniscrone from all across the world,” says Michael Jacob, a local businessman involved in the club and also a member of the placename committee.
“It is fine for people who can associate with the two variations of the name, but for anybody looking at our website or looking to book online, we need to have one name.
“We are celebrating our centenary in the golf club this year and from the word go, our name was spelled with the E.”
So where to now? Having completed this stage of the process, and with all attendees at the meeting signing a petition to have the name changed, Sinead Durkan outlined what should happen next.
“The next step is that the County Council will consider the motion and hopefully they will set a date for a plebiscite.
“Once that is set, following the format that was set by Dingle and Knock previously, a date for a postal vote will be set and a register of electors will be set by the council.
“If the people of Enniscrone decide to change the name to Enniscrone, it will go back to the council who then refer it to the relevant minister and what we need at the end of all this is a statutory instrument to be made, to change the official name of the town to Enniscrone, the way we all use it here.
“We’ ll be rolling this boulder along and trying to get further support as we move forward.”