Names Matter (Podcast 082)

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A small cultural practice gives us insight into underlying culture in Ireland: that is that a good number of people in Ireland use the Irish language of their name on Facebook, even though the Irish language is not part of their everyday lives.

But that still gives us an insight into the culture, and people’s identities.

For my own name, Eoin Ó Conchúir, people often ask me “So what’s that in English?”. I always play along, but I do say to myself, “But I didn’t ask you what your name is in Irish”.

Kids are named with Irish language names a lot in Ireland. It depends on the family and their values. A good number of people use Irish language names for their kids. (Also see: Irish language baby names).

While we’re on names, I usually leave out the fadaí (accent marks) if someone is asking me how to spell my name out.

And while we’re at it, this is indeed now the Bitesize Irish Podcast, and not the Bitesize Irish Gaelic podcast. Names for the Irish language matter. By using “Irish Gaelic”, that label was excluding people in Ireland from appreciating what Bitesize Irish does. “Gaelic” or “Irish Gaelic” is seen as a touristy or foreign word by people in Ireland, generally. So we’ve renamed back to Bitesize Irish, true to the name we launched with in 2010.

Shout out to listener EJ Kennedy:

I just finished listening to all 77 episodes in a month, now I’m just waiting for the next one. Glad to have caught up

EJ Kennedy

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