A dispute has broken out between Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Labour's foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins, arising from a Government decision to request that the wording on official nameplates at European Union meetings be changed from "Ireland" to "Éire Ireland".
In a statement yesterday, Mr Higgins said: "Considerable confusion has been created by the Minister for Foreign Affairs' statement this morning that he was changing his website and press releases so as to delete 'Ireland' and replace it with 'Éire Ireland'.
"Some members of the public have contacted their public representatives asking whether the name of the State was being changed. They gathered such an impression from the Minister for Foreign Affairs' interview on the RTÉ programme Morning Ireland earlier today." A spokesman for Mr Ahern responded: "All that has happened is that, because Irish will enjoy official language status at EU level from January 1st, 2007, the nameplates in front of Irish representatives at EU meetings will be bilingual.
"The Minister is somewhat surprised at Deputy Higgins' attitude. Would he prefer that, from January 1st, we ignore the Irish language and leave the nameplate solely in English?" He said there were no plans to make the name of the State bilingual on the departmental website or in press releases.
The English-language version of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Constitution of Ireland, lays down that: "The name of the State is Éire or, in the English language, Ireland." Éire is also a traditional name for the whole island in the Irish language and is derived from the name of the goddess Eriu who, according to the 11th-century Book of Invasions, helped the Gaels to conquer Ireland.
The State is also sometimes referred to as the "Republic of Ireland", for example in the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, but this is technically a description rather than the official name, which continues to be "Éire" in the Irish language and "Ireland" in the English language, in all treaties and legal documents.
Ten years ago, the Constitution Review Group suggested that Article 4 of Bunreacht na hÉireann was unnecessarily complicated and recommended instead a simple declaration that, "The name of the State is Ireland."