Sir, – In all the clamour about the Americanisation of Irish English (there – two Americanisations already!), is anyone noticing the curious and inappropriate Irishisation of English, as demonstrated most recently in the selection of Ornua as the new corporate identity for Ireland’s worldwide dairy marketing interests?
Apart from the dropping of the fada over the initial “O” and the unrelated nature of the subtitle “The Home of Irish Dairy” (whatever an Irish dairy home is), how do I go about explaining to my American friends that Irish farmers are resisting the concept of quotaless milk as “white gold” but that the term (if it were real Irish) could mean new gold?
And it’s a hard, unpretty word (pronounced “r-nua” here with the emphasis on the first and last syllables, and at first often confused with “cornua”) with none of the soft sibilant sounds people expect of Irish words. – Yours, etc. DENIS BERGIN Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.