Where is Ireland? - Keaveney
Senator Cecilia Keaveney hit out this week in the Seanad against the use of what she considered to be offensive terminology in official letters emanating from some government departments.
Senator Keaveney commented: "Recently I raised the issue of having our National Ordnance Survey maps use the terms Doire and Londonderry but not Derry. Since then literature from the Department of Social and Family Affairs has come to my attention. This talks about refusing people for an allowance because: ‘you came to reside in Ireland in January 2009, having lived outside Ireland all of your life; your centre of interest is not Ireland; you have no links or family ties in Ireland; your immediate family reside outside Ireland’.
“The person referred to was not a person coming in from some other part of the world. They had lived on the island of Ireland all their lives. Their parents were both born and raised in the Republic. They, themselves had spent every summer in Donegal from their earliest days. Therefore this type of terminology was very surprising to them and to me coming from a Government Department.
"A simple addition of the words "Republic of" before all the uses of the word Ireland would have had a significant change on the tone of the letter. In this era, it is time for all State Agencies and Government Departments to look at their use of language. There is no need to offend us who see Ireland as an island of 32 counties.”
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Weather for Derry
Thursday 20 June 2013
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
