These guidelines cover the style of language and writing to be used in
Ireland
-related articles. This includes both the
Republic of Ireland
and
Northern Ireland
. If you disagree with the conventions described here, or wish to add to them, please discuss it on the
talk page
.
Article titles
[
edit
]
Where a subject has both an English and an Irish version of their name, use the English version if it is more common among English speakers. Create a redirect page at the Irish version of the name as appropriate.
Conversely, when the Irish version is more common among English speakers, use the Irish version as the title of the article. Mention the English name in the first line of the article.
In-article use
[
edit
]
An Irish version of a subject's English-language name may be given in the first sentence of the lead of an article on that subject if it is a well-known, commonly used name for that subject. It may also be used in the appropriate field of an infobox. If there is no commonly used Irish version, it is not appropriate or encyclopaedic to "invent" such names, as this constitutes
original research
. The mere fact that an Irish name appears in certain sources, such as dictionaries or databases, is not sufficient evidence that it is commonly used. Articles on general topics such as
Irish art
,
Transport in Ireland
etc. should not have an Irish translation in the first sentence or the infobox.
Irish words and phrases should be encased in
{{
lang
}}
, either:
{{lang-ga|Pairti an Lucht Oibre}}
which renders like this:
- Irish
:
Pairti an Lucht Oibre
or
{{lang|ga|Pairti an Lucht Oibre}}
which renders like this:
This enables speech synthesizers to pronounce the text in the correct language
and has other benefits
. See
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility#Other_languages
.
Orthography
[
edit
]
When transcribing from Irish texts which contain
lenited
letters (the
dot above
letters indicating
seimhiu
), reflect modern usage by replacing the dot with an 'h'. Example:
- Ae?
→
Aedh
- Ao?
→
Aodh
- Do?nall
→
Domhnall
- Ruai?ri →
Ruaidhri
The
sineadh fada
(or
acute accent
) should be used when Irish spelling requires it e.g. "Mary Robinson (
Maire Mhic Roibin
)", not "Mary Robinson (
Maire Mhic Roibin
)".
Common names
[
edit
]
The guidelines for Irish language names,
above
, apply to place names.
In deciding article titles:
Where the English- and Irish-language names are the same or very nearly the same, but the spellings differ, use the English spelling. Example:
Where the English- and Irish-language names are different:
- and the English name predominates in English, use the English name (
Wicklow
, not
Cill Mhantain
);
- and the Irish name is the official name, but has not yet gained favour in English, use the English name (
Newbridge
, not
Droichead Nua
);
- and the Irish name is official and has gained favour in English, use the official Irish name (
Dun Laoghaire
, not
Dunleary
).
Use
Connacht
generally for the province, but
Connaught
where that form was used in official titles or names of entities, e.g.
Connaught Rangers
,
Lord of Connaught
,
Connaught Telegraph
.
The remainder of the article should use only the place name as titled in the article. An exception to this is when a portion of the article is providing information specific to the naming of the place.
When mentioning other locales in the context of the article, conform to the rules for article titling above but do not include the alternative name along with it. An exception might be in the case of a name that is unlikely to have an article of its own. However, if a place name is significant enough to warrant both an English and an Irish name, it is probably significant enough for an article of its own, however brief.
Other names
[
edit
]
For articles on places on the island of Ireland, show the modern name in English, Irish and, if appropriate, Scots in the infobox if the article has one.
For places in the Republic of Ireland, other names should be shown in parentheses immediately after the common name in the lead. For places in Northern Ireland, only show non-English-language names in parentheses after the bolded name if the name in that language demonstrates the origin of the common name. Other names and etymologies can be described in the body of the article (after the lead, if the article has one).
The meaning of non-English place names should be given if known. All such meanings should be fully cited. For names that appear in the lead, provide the meaning in parenthesis immediately after the common name. Otherwise, provide the meaning in the body of the article (after the lead, if the article has one).
Examples:
- For places in the Republic of Ireland:
- Drogheda
(
Irish
:
Droichead Atha
)
[1]
...
- Wexford
(from
Old Norse
Veisafj?rðr
?'inlet of the mud flat';
[1]
Irish
:
Loch Garman
, meaning 'lake of Garman')
[2]
...
- For places in Northern Ireland whose names are not derived from English:
- Dungannon
(from
Irish
Dun Geanainn
, meaning 'Geanann's stronghold')
[1]
...
- Strangford
(from
Old Norse
Strangr-fj?rðr
?'strong
fjord
')
[1]
...
- For places in Northern Ireland whose names are derived from English, the other names should only appear in the infobox along with a source.
Generally speaking, contemporary names should reflect contemporary spelling. All place names given should be attributable to reliable sources. If different sourced modern versions exist, i.e.
Tulach Lios
or
Tulaigh Lis
, a website (
www.logainm.ie
) developed by the Placenames Branch of the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs in the Republic of Ireland, and used by the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, can be used to provide a generally accepted spelling?? in this case
Tulaigh Lis
. This site lists the official English and Irish forms of place names within the Republic of Ireland. The Irish names it lists for places within Northern Ireland do not have legal status. They are, however, used by the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland to produce authoritative Irish versions of place names in Northern Ireland.
Referring to counties
[
edit
]
When entering counties into Wikipedia use the full term
County
, not
Co
or
Co.
. The use of
Co.
is generally localised to Ireland and not always understood by the global community. For example, write
County Galway
, not
Co. Galway
or [[County Galway|Co. Galway]].
Use the full county name (i.e.
County X
) when referring to counties, rather than abbreviating to short name (i.e.
X
). There are normally towns or cities within a county after which the county was named. Use the "short name" to refer only to that place (i.e.
County Galway
vs.
Galway
).
When referring to a city, do not follow it with a county, e.g. "
Belfast
", not "
Belfast, County Antrim
" or "Belfast, County Down". Similarly, do not follow a town with an eponymous county, e.g. "
Sligo
", not "Sligo, County Sligo".
Derry/Londonderry
[
edit
]
To avoid constant renaming of articles (and more), keep a
neutral point of view
, promote consistency in the encyclopedia, and avoid
Stroke City
?style terms perplexing to those unfamiliar with the dispute, a compromise solution
was proposed
and
agreed
in 2004 regarding the
Derry/Londonderry name dispute
, and has been generally accepted as a convention for both article titles and in-article references since then.
Use
Derry
for the city and
County Londonderry
for the county in articles. Do not deviate from this merely because the subject relates to a particular side of the political divide, but where an entity uses a particular name, regardless of whether it is
Derry
or
Londonderry
, use that name for the entity; thus
High Sheriff of Londonderry City
, former
Derry Central Railway
,
Derry ~ Londonderry railway station
,
North West Liberties of Londonderry
, and
Derry GAA
(which will usually be abbreviated to
[[Derry?GAA|Derry]]
).
The naming dispute can be discussed in the articles when appropriate.
Use of
Ireland
and
Republic of Ireland
[
edit
]
Concerns have been expressed that using the word
Ireland
alone can mislead given that it refers to both the island of Ireland and the Irish state (which are not coterminous).
A discussion process decided
to leave the article on the island at
Ireland
and the article on the Irish state at
Republic of Ireland
until
consensus changes
.
A consensus emerged with respect to referring to the island and the state in other contexts:
- Use "Ireland" for the state except where the island of Ireland or Northern Ireland is being discussed in the same context. In such circumstances use "Republic of Ireland" (e.g. "
Strabane
is at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland").
- An exception is where the state forms a major component of the topic (e.g. on articles relating to states, politics or governance) where "Ireland" should be preferred and the island should be referred to as the "island of Ireland" or similar (e.g. "Ireland is a state in Europe occupying most of the
island of Ireland
").
- Regardless of the above guidelines, always use the official titles of state offices (e.g. "
Douglas Hyde
was the first
president of Ireland
").
- Per the
Linking
guideline of the Manual of Style, the names of major geographic features and locations should not be linked, so "Ireland" should not normally be linked. If it is thought necessary to link, in order to establish context or for any other reason, the name of the state must be pipelinked as
[[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
.
Trinity College Dublin
(usually not
University of Dublin
)
[
edit
]
Unless the specific context requires, refer to
Trinity College Dublin
rather than the
University of Dublin
or
Dublin University
. It may be relevant to mention the university in the case of the
Dublin University
constituency, sports clubs which use
Dublin University
in their name, or a position specifically related to the university, such as
Chancellor of the University of Dublin
.
Naming people
[
edit
]
The guidelines for Irish language names,
above
, apply. Example:
Spelling
[
edit
]
- In Irish orthography, there is a space between Mac and the rest of the surname, e.g.
Sean Mac Eoin
,
Sean Mac Stiofain
; in English orthography, there is no space between the Mc or Mac and the rest of the surname.
- The O in surnames always takes an accent and is followed by a space e.g.
Tomas O Fiaich
, not Tomas O'Fiaich.
- Mac
(son of) is only used for men.
O
(of the family of) is rarely used for women; in most cases use
Ni
or
Nic
(Daughter of) or "Mhic" ([Wife] of the son of) or "Ui" (Of the family of) in Irish spellings of women's surnames. (Use
O'
,
Mc
or
Mac
for the English forms of women's names.)
- In alphabetised lists of names on the English-language Wikipedia follow English-language convention and group all
Mac
s etc. together. (The Irish-language convention is to ignore the
Mac
,
O
etc. prefix and alphabetise by the first letter of the suffix.) Follow this practice even for names in Irish.
Place of birth, death etc.
[
edit
]
The place of birth, residence and/or death of people who were born, lived or died before 1921 in what today is Northern Ireland should be given simply as "Ireland", and they should not be described as "Northern Irish". "Ireland" should not normally be linked, but if thought necessary should be linked as
[[Ireland]]
, not
[[Northern Ireland|Ireland]]
. For people who were born, lived or died in Northern Ireland after 1922 use "Northern Ireland", which will not normally be linked and should never be pipelinked.
For people anywhere else in Ireland at any time, "Ireland" should be used. Should pipelinking be considered necessary,
[[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
can be used after 1922.
Descriptive nouns and adjectives
[
edit
]
Do not capitalise the first letter of words such as
nationalist, unionist, republican
or
loyalist
, whether used as nouns or adjectives, when describing people. Example:
Education
[
edit
]
If a person was educated or taught at
Trinity College Dublin
, the University of Dublin should not be referenced in that context.
This section deals with the use of flag icons to represent historic and contemporary states on the island of Ireland. Please see also
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons
.
At this time, neither the island of Ireland nor Northern Ireland has a universally recognised flag. If an organisation uses a flag or banner to represent the island of Ireland or Northern Ireland, use that flag or banner to represent teams, bodies or people under its aegis. If that image is
copyrighted
, it may be possible to use an older
public domain
alternative if the older flag or banner is not significantly different to the current one (such as with the
IRFU banner
). If that is not possible, or if the organisation uses no particular flag or banner, do not use any flag.
A series of templates have been developed to represent Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in sporting and other contexts. These can be seen at:
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