This article is from page 5 of the 2011-03-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
THE erection of a series of new signs with non-colloquial place names has been described “absolute lunacy” by a north Clare county councillor.
According to Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) the new signs use out of date an inaccurate names, which were first used by the British army in Ireland, ahead of the modern names which have been used officially and locally for more than 100 years.
“Are we supposed to go back to the spelling of 2,000 years ago and upset all the people and the tourist community in Ballyvaughan and across north Clare?
“We are really causing difficulty for people here and we need a serious meeting with the NRA to sort this out. This is a serious matter, it’s absolute lunacy,” said Cllr Arkins (FG). Most of this survey work used for these was done by the British Army who had different language from the people who lived in the area that they were working in.
“Just because some British officer put the wrong name in a map 150 years ago it doesn’t mean that we have to go along with this.
“This makes us looks like absolute fools. If you went to Greece in the morning you wouldn’t see something like this, and if you did you’d think that you had arrived in some sort of banana republic.”
According to Cllr Michael Kelly (FF), the new signs will lead to widespread confusion during the summer tourist season.
“We are talking about connecting people to the Burren area so we can’t be going around and confusing people like this,” he said.
“I remember at one time putting in a motion with Clare County Council about Bellharbour and I was told that there was no such place as Bellharbour – it was called something else instead. Can you imagine that?
“The people of north Clare are very upset about this. Once, back in the 1850s, Ballyvaughan was called Ballyvaghan and the people up there can’t understand why this has been thrust upon them now.”
Speaking at yesterday’s North Clare Area Meeting, Director of Services at Clare County Council David Timlin said that local authority will look into the matter.
“Clare County Council and the Post Offices have always used the local spellings and this [the signs] is not something that we have control over,” he said.
“I would suggest that the council would refer this to the ordinance survey organisation and to the NRA.”