Sir, – I was driving through west Clare recently when I thought I had got lost.
The signpost said “Milltown” Malbay and I know of no such place. I was born in a town called Miltown Malbay which is where I thought I was going.
Then I drove a few miles on and looked for Lahinch but that was nowhere to be seen. All I could see was a sign saying “Lehinch” – which I’d never heard of.
Panicking now, like George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, I decided to aim for the warm bosom of Ennistymon and take a rain-check. I drove inland for a few miles until I spotted a signpost announcing a town called "Ennistimon".
It was time to admit defeat, I didn’t know where I was, so I headed back to Dublin to see if the places I had known there had morphed into something else while I was away.
Nearing Ennis I realised I wasn’t out of the woods yet for the place I once knew as Corofin was now called “Corrofin”. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT CROWE,
Rush,
Co Dublin.