Metropol

Well Sput, if you want philosophy, I believe that whatever one does, someone is put out by it. Every decision in our lives is to the benefit of one party at the expense of another. Offence is only created if the neglected party choose to be negatively affected by it, whereas many others - the majority I'd expect - will respect the choice of the individual making the decision.

BBC Radio Style Guide wrote:Ireland
is an island, comprising Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. We should no longer use Ulster as a synonym for Northern Ireland (one reason is that Northern Ireland has six counties whereas Ulster has nine) though "the province" remains acceptable on second reference.

Unless you listen to BBC Radio Ulster.

marksi wrote:

BBC Radio Style Guide wrote:Ireland
is an island, comprising Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. We should no longer use Ulster as a synonym for Northern Ireland (one reason is that Northern Ireland has six counties whereas Ulster has nine) though "the province" remains acceptable on second reference.

Unless you listen to BBC Radio Ulster.

Having reread the guide, it's the BBC Radio News style guide - hugely contradictory, all the same.

Hope that was addressed to you in Alba!

Ho ho... I couldn't resist.

Sorry I haven't come back to this until now, I thought it had all been laid to rest.

Alexia wrote:Offence is only created if the neglected party choose to be negatively affected by it

To be honest, Alexia, I'm not really offended by the use of the word Eire, mildly irritated would be a more accurate description. Indeed I believe that's what I said in my first post. As I have already acknowledged, most people nowadays (including you and apparently six of Nick's Irish friends) use it unaware of its earlier implications. It's probably a good thing that for most people it's a non-issue.

What I do find offensive, however, is your attitude throughout this thread. Regardless of what Nick's friends or Gavin's envelopes say, I didn't make any of this stuff up. All you had to do was take it on board, but your posts since have varied from irrelevance about the origins of the word Eire to nitpicking about other nations referred to in their native names, and finally accusing me of "incessant shrieking" and "pseudo-hysteria".

Well I'm sorry if I seemed hysterical. Having my point dismissed out of hand probably put me a bit on edge. If you care to look back, however, you'll notice that on two occasions I acknowledged that this whole thing really isn't very important. You, on the other hand, continue to come back to this and make personal remarks. It's all just a little rude and (thank you, Sput) unclassy.

And the Google Translate Irish... What the actual fuck?

Fucking yawn.

In the interests of fairness, our Irish friend has a right to defend and/or explain his position after several replies on the subject.

Its just that matters of, well, pedantry can be a little dry.

But hey - this is the forum that discusses the minutia of supermarket signage, so I think its all reasonable.

I refer Eoin to the replies I made in this thread on Friday 20th May at 13:17 and 15:15 respectively on page 2 of this thread.

Erin go bragh.

eoin wrote:Sorry I haven't come back to this until now.

And talking of opinions not shared by many people.................