Leaving the children’s library books back, the librarian said, not in an unfriendly way, “I can’t pronounce those names at all. Is there an English equivalent?” To which, I replied, not in an unfriendly way, “No.”
The children’s Christian names are recognisable Irish. Have I marked them for life as a consequence? We do live in the North and one needs to be cautious. In the benighted place where I have pitched my tent, the community is very segregated and there is a sectarian undertow (on both sides) to life. That said, my wife (who does not speak Irish) liked the names which are distinctive but not bizarre. In fact, the primary school they attend is full of Pádraigs, Diarmuids, Oisíns, Odhráns, Áines, Méabhs and Caitlíns. (The last one pronounced by parents and children alike with the American inflexion: Kay-linn as opposed to Catch-lean.)
It is a world away from my generation (40 plus) who would never have been given such ‘exotic’ names. I have a very good female friend whose first name is unmistakably Irish. However, it is not actually her first name. Her birth certificate knows her as Elizabeth; her given Irish name is, in fact, her second name. I know also of one well-known academic from the North whose father wanted to call him Séamus but who was registered as James because the clerk in the council refused to write Séamus in an act of petty sectarianism which many of my parents’ generation would recognise.
Those days of refusing to write down a name in Irish are gone (for the most part) but asking for an equivalent in English have not, it seems.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
‘Is there an English equivalent of that?’
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6 comments:
That's ridiculous. You should write to the library board and ask them to train their staff better. We all pay our taxes, so we're all entitled to be treated equally. Is it official library policy to refer to visitors by different names from what they're actually called?
When I found out that my grandmother had forbidden my mother to call me Sean, I spent half my life feeling something had been stolen from me. It was a "Catholic" name.
Tuigeann muid go léir an fhadhb seo ach is mion-rud é i gcomparáid mar a bhí.
Ní cheart duit gearán a dhéanamh, deán gáire agus siúl ar aghaidh.
The use of Kate-Lynn in Ireland is utterly outrageous, and drives me up the fucking wall.
Shiúil mé ar aghaidh gan amhras. Ní dóigh liom go ndearnadh le holcas é ach rinneadh é mar sin féin - agus ní den chéad uair.
Nothing against the Irish language itself but its very unphonetic to English speakers, more so than most European languages such as French or German. So one is sometimes curious to know if there is an English equivalent to relate it to.
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