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Shop Fronts


A few general shopfronts ...



Neachtain's is probably one of the more spectacular. This mural is part of a frontage/sideage that claims continuity from 1894.



And then, there's Murphy's Bar. These are sufficiently dotted around the countryside to surely rival, if not outnumber, McCarthy's Bars which have had a book written about them. Note the older Irish spelling of Ó Murchú.



Richardson's Pub in Eyre Square. And before we get fully into the Irish, let us not forget a drop of the altar wine. Or is it football we're talking here.




Gaeilge, led thoil ...

Some shopfronts that have pressed the Irish language into service.








Irish BooBoos

And then the inevitable cock ups ...



This was surely something. I took it in mid 2006 and it was gone the last time I looked. Perhaps someone wised them up. Or, maybe it was supposed to be a joke. Compass points are tricky in Irish. You have to specify whether you are at them, about them, going to them or coming from them. And in none of the aforementioned versions does the apostrophe appear. This looks like a cross between a direction and a misconceived surname. The correct orthography of the version presented would be Ó Dheas which means going south. A direct translation of Le Sud would be An Deisceart which doesn't sound very exciting. Better to leave it as it is in French and think up a parallel Irish name.




The c of teach and the b of céibhe should have a séimhiú and the e of céibhe a fada as in:




This is another case of the mad apostrophe. Acceptable in the English language version, O'Malley, it is incorrect in the Irish version which should read Ó Máille. They did put a fada over the O but neglected to drop the apostrophe. The result is a nonsensical hybrid.




I record this one in sadness more than anything else. It is intended to mean Jewellers and Watchmakers but the translator wasn't really up to scratch on this one. The Irish for jewel is seod and for jeweller is seodóir, plural seodóirí. The óir addition here would correspond to the er addition in English, and the plural óirí to ers. However, you can't carry this through to the word watch (uaireadóir), which already has the óir ending. You would have to opt for two words watch and makers, déantóirí uaireadóra, or some such. Unfortunately the sign above means Jewellers and Watches.



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