PLACE NAMES

Sir, - Within a few hundred metres of where I live, there are a dozen or so streets with names incorporating the words Foxrock…

Sir, - Within a few hundred metres of where I live, there are a dozen or so streets with names incorporating the words Foxrock or Knocksinna. The English versions of the names are quite clear and correct, but there seems to be no consistency about the way they have been rendered into our other official language.

Five examples will indicate the problem: the street sign for Knocksinna Crescent is shown as written below; Knocksinna Court and Park are presented as Chnoc Sionnach Cuirt (!) and Pairc Chnoc Sionnaigh, and Foxrock Avenue and Mountas Ascal Carraig a tSionnaigh and Cnocan Charraig An tSionnaig. One doesn't have to be a Gaelic scholar to see that at least there's some inconsistency here.

It would be interesting to know who devises these names; some of them appear to have been cobbled together by someone who wouldn't pass the Junior Certificate. Surely there should be some authoritative body to pronounce on these names. An Irish solution to this Irish problem could be our own equivalent of L'Academie

Francaise - An Acadamh

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Gaeilge, perhaps? - Yours, etc.,

Corran Chnoc Sionnaich,

BAC18.