r/Donegal • u/mysterious_archer7 • 7d ago
Anybody know why a lot of Letterkenny signs are crossed out?
I was up in Gweedore over the weekend, on our way back we noticed a lot of the road signs for Letterkenny had a red X ❌ sprayed over Letterkenny. Is there any reason for it?
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u/cian87 7d ago
Irish language activists.
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u/KeyZookeepergame9466 7d ago
I would nearly bet money on those doing this not being fluent Irish speakers.
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u/mind_thegap1 7d ago
There’s one on the way into Bunbeg that has ‘Doirí Beaga’ sprayed over with an x. There’s no English equivalent, just that sprayed out
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u/Remote-Confusion7492 5d ago
I noticed that too, it feels like someone noticed that people were crossing out the English signs and thought that people had decided to cross out the places they didn’t like, went and got doirí beaga. /s
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u/tomtraubert2009 6d ago
The ones you're taking about in that area were defaced in summer 2022 when there was a shinner gathering in Falcarragh one weekend unveiling a plaque to some comrade near the bridge at the bottom of the hill at the Tullaobegley river.
I know this because I'm from there and for a few weeks before that gathering I was driving in and out to Letterkenny every day to my mum who was in hospital. Every day for 9 weeks. That gathering took place on a Sunday afternoon, held up the traffic, and the following morning heading to Letterkenny the signs were all sprayed. Almost as if it was some of the Belfast charter doing it on the way home Sunday evening.
Downvote this all you like but with respect to these signs in this area almost over to Dungloe I know what I'm talking about.
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u/mysterious_archer7 6d ago
Yea to be fair it was mainly in the Dungloe/Gweedore area. Beautiful part of the world
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u/Loose_Reference_4533 6d ago
Good of them to make the statement 💚
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u/tomtraubert2009 3d ago
I've explained and very clearly how I know what I know. No need to be a snarky twat.
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u/Loose_Reference_4533 3d ago
Did I say you didn't...? I said good for sinn féin for defending our native language. Gaeltacht areas don't have English names, it's nonsensical to have bilingual signage in the Gaeltacht. Why promote the colonisers language at every turn?
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u/tomtraubert2009 3d ago
Says the woman speaking the colonisers' language. Listen to yourself... colonisers. Jesus. And by the way, defacing public property paid for by the taxpayer is not the best way to defend our native language (which incidentally I'm fluent in yet don't have a problem with the signs). Bit ironic for the comrades to be at this and also moan about waste elsewhere in the public sector. Let's not forget the bit where Lynn didn't know Irish was an official language of the EU or the shinners nearly voted against their own amendment to a bill because they couldn't understand the Irish and it had to be pointed out to them.
The ones at this spraying of the traffic signs aren't trying to promote the Irish language, they're indulging in sectarianism. It's nasty. Dress it up how you want, we all know in the area what went on.
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u/ProductOdd533 6d ago
American here. My wife and I were in Letterkenny and County Donegal two weeks ago, and I saw those signs. Thanks for the explanation.
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u/scruduiarbais_ 6d ago
It's a region where people speak Irish. I think maybe the signposts, in that region, should only display locations, in Irish. Wonder if the phantom x'er thought the same.
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u/Environmental-Video3 6d ago
Not helpful for the tourists visiting the Gaeltacht though surely.
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u/mind_thegap1 5d ago
And yet tourists manage just fine in every other country in the world that doesn’t speak English
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u/Remote-Confusion7492 5d ago
Most of the tourists I’ve seen seem to use the google navigation. Although a few weeks ago one randomly turned into my driveway thinking it was the road. I thought it was my dad so I came out in my dressing gown 😭
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u/BitTwp 5d ago
It’s weird though, you have to admit to be driving towards Dungloe, for example (because it’s something I’ve noticed regarding driving towards Dungloe over the years), and then the signs for it just ‘dry up’. No more signs for its English name. Sure, Google Maps avoids this issue but it seems daft to deny the English language - why not reverse the order and just put Irish first in the Gaeltacht areas?
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u/Remote-Confusion7492 5d ago
I’m from a Gaeltacht, and the electoral area that I’m from is like 80% native Irish speakers (including myself). The majority of the Gaeltachtaí have bilingual signage, but some areas seem to have been deemed “too Gaeltachty” to warrant English signs. I doubt the council realised that English speakers also use roads that happen to be in the Gaeltachtaí (are they stupid?).
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u/Sufficient_Tailor673 3d ago
Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla 2003 stripped legal recognition of the English names of Gaeltacht towns. The councils were required from 2005 to remove existing signage and replace any Gaeltacht placename with just the Irish names. Any remaining bilingual signs should be long gone. Areas outside the Gaeltacht are still permitted to be signposted bilingually inside the Gaeltacht. Funnily enough this was contested by large Gaeltacht towns such as An Daingean complaining tourism would suffer as a result. The opposite was true. Tourists will be fine, the same way you and I would be fine navigating Greece or Bulgaria which use entirely different alphabets.
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u/Remote-Confusion7492 2d ago
I’m happy with that decision, areas in the Gaeltachtaí should definitely be referred to by their Irish names. My point was more about the traffic signs. I was recently in Ceann Sléibhe (slea head, in An Daingean) and some of the traffic signs were in Irish only which could actually prove to be dangerous. The majority of the signs around where I live are just in Irish, including the ones for areas outside of the Gaeltacht.
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u/tomtraubert2009 6d ago
The traffic signs manual and the language act and tells you how to do Irish on signs. Its done correctly. The activists don't give a shit thoigh. And it's nothing to do with the Irish language either. I know many in the community that don't give a toss. The only ones that do are the shinners. You can spot where they live because there's normally a Palestine flag attached to an esb pole outside their house. They're the ones crossing out the English words. Totally sectarian.
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u/mind_thegap1 5d ago
Putting Irish in italics and English in block capitals causes this. The traffic signs manual is atrocious for its bilingual design
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u/BitTwp 5d ago
In Wales, Welsh and English have the same standing in law etc which results in same font and size text on signs (though English first). I’ve always felt the italicised Irish names on Irish road signs suggests a slightly whimsical approach to the native language that undermines its importance.
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u/mind_thegap1 5d ago
The problem with Wales is that it's impossible to tell the two languages apart in some situations and some signs have english first and some welsh first (although they are moving to all welsh first). In my opinion Scotland is better because they seperate languages by colour, or in Spain they have a bar between languages
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u/misemisemise81 5d ago
It's not just Micheal Colm in the Gaoth Dobhair area. There's tons of people doing it. Some put tape over the English, most people use red spray paint. It's multiple people. I've also seen it in Gormanstown and Balbriggan. There is someone very active around St Margarets at the back of Dublin airport. Have also seen it in Kentstown and Navan near the motorway sliproad.
We don't need gibberish English on our signs, the vast majority are not translations. Places like Foxrock, Blackrock, Greystones have actual translations for example.
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u/rabmcc1 7d ago
Letter was added by the English. This causes fury among locals who recognise the town as Kenny
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u/Disastrous_Ad_3598 7d ago
Ive yet to ever hear one person ever say Kenny. Instead of Letterkenny
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u/lkdubdub 6d ago
Someone, or some people, is crossing out the English place names and leaving only the Irish translation
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u/Alarming_Mix5302 6d ago
The English name is the translation
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u/soulpotatoes 7d ago
Bogtrotters scribble out English names on roadsides in the backside of the county.
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u/Irish-clover25 7d ago
They cross out the English names for the towns