I was reading a book called "Living Abroad in Ireland" (hey, a girl can dream, right?) and came across the weirdest information. Part of the book is organized according to major cities (Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway) and I was reading the section on Galway. After the bit on the city itself, there's a section on (supposedly nearby) more rural towns. I was a bit surprised to see Doolin (isn't that about 50 miles from Galway? I remember going there, but since we drove from Ballyvaughan I don't really have an idea of how far it is from Galway, other than that it's in the opposite direction), but my jaw dropped when I saw Ardara! Ardara's in Donegal! I've BEEN a few miles from Ardara, and it's one hell of a long way from Galway! (the author does mention that's it's near Donegal town, but the last time I checked, Donegal town is also one hell of a long way from Galway!)

That's a weird concept of "near" even by American standards! (and this gal supposedly has lived in Ireland!)

Just had to share.

Redwolf

Just to add: Her Irish was pretty shaky too. She gave the Irish name for Ireland as "Éireann" and claimed it was made up of "Éire" and the Viking word for "land" (I think she had it confused with "Ireland").

Redwolf

When someone writes about Ireland, he can get away with the most atrocious drivel. If the book is edited or proofread, chances are the editor is as ignorant on the topic as the author

Oh gosh, it gets worse. Here is the pronunciation she offers for some Irish words and phrases:

Baile: BAL-ee

Céad Míle Fáilte: Cayd MEE-lay FAWL-cheh

Dún: Done

Éire: Air

Teach: Tock

Oy.

Redwolf

I think you should burn that book!

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I would sure do some fact checking before acting on any information in it. How someone who claims to have taken classes in Irish could mangle it that badly, I have no idea. And she's hallucinating if she thinks that Ardara is anywhere near Galway!

Redwolf

At first when I saw it I was thinkin that maybe its a different Ardara, because you might have 2 or 3 towns with the same name. But then you showed the pronounciation guide and I said to myself that it must have been proof read outside of Ireland because everybody knows Éire is Air-a and not Air, no matter how bad their Irish is and Baile is no where near Bal-ee, its the capital of Ireland Baile Átha Cliath for God sake and its hard to drive in Ireland without seeing Baile on a road sign. I would think the author has been to Ireland and when she was driving around she was lookin at the road signs. Because if you look at the anglicised forms of towns with Baile they are often written as Bally or in the case of Dún anglicised to Dun, but pronounced "done" and she must have presumed the Irish pronounciation was synonimous with the anglicised version- that would be my theory to the pronounciation problem!

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I might have thought the same thing if she hadn't mentioned that it's near Donegal town or included a map that clearly showed Ardara to be in Donegal. In the text she even mentions that it's 144 miles from Galway, which is just weird. Even here (where we think nothing of driving 70 miles up the coast to San Francisco for a special dinner or a concert) we wouldn't consider that kind of distance as being "near."

The really weird thing about the misrepresented pronunciations is that she claims to have had to take Irish classes for a job (she did actually live in Ireland for a while...she has a journalism degree from NUI Galway, married an Irishman, and lived there for several years before moving to London), so even if she's not fluent, you'd think she'd have a better idea as to how to pronounce "baile" "míle" and "Éire."

Redwolf

She clearly didn't get the job , must explain why she's living in London now ! And to make it worse 70 miles for ye wouldn't be bad because of yer lovely straight roads, so it might take ye a couple of hours but 70 miles for us might take us 30 days and nights due to our road network of circular treacherous bóithríns, so I'd challenge her concept of distance- maybe she had a helicopter .

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True. Even taking the lovely coast road, which meanders happily along the coastline and through several lovely little towns (can you tell it's my preferred route?), it takes me, at most, 2 1/2 hours to get to San Francisco (and that's only if I happen to run into rush-hour traffic coming over the hill on 92 into Half Moon Bay...and then stop for coffee along the way)...usually it's closer to two hours on the coast road or 1 1/2 hours on the freeway.

I know the difference gave Tony a scare when I was in Ireland (he stayed home). We (the people I was traveling with and I) drove from Ballyvaughan to Gleann Cholm Cille, and I guess he thought it wouldn't take as long as it did, as I arrived at Oideas Gael to a message to call my worried husband! I'd promised to call him when I arrived, and he's never been to Ireland, so he had no idea how long it would take (and, of course, we'd been in no great hurry...we stopped in a couple of places along the way to stretch and take in the sites).

Redwolf