Department of Social and Family Affairs embarassed by Irish names?

[diy01]

Is this the sign of a confident, forward looking nation?

From the Indo:

Yesterday it was revealed that the Department of Social and Family Affairs has been going to extreme lengths to remove the fada from the names of every child born in the State with an Irish language name requiring the accent.

The department has been effectively changing names such as Seán, Máire and Póilín to Sean, Maire and Poilin.

The birth registration data came from the General Registrar's Office with every appropriate síneadh fada in place.

But when subsequently transferred electronically to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the fada was removed to facilitate inclusion in shared databases within the department. This was despite the fact the department's computer system could readily handle every síneadh fada required.

The 2008 Annual Report of An Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin was released yesterday.
http://www.coimisineir.ie/downloads/...ntuil_2008.pdf (bilingual)

Article in the Irish Times on the Report.

Following the recommendations by the coimisinéir, the department is now required to use only the accurate versions of birth record details from the General Registrar's Office, including the use of the síneadh fada.

What you had here was a Department actively misspelling names of Irish born children simply because they were Irish! Fadas aren't there for decoration. They affect how words are pronounced. I wonder if the Norwegians are in the habit of mangling names because of the pesky ø, æ, or å. I imagine they just spell the damn word correctly as it's their own language. Is it Bjørn Stærk or Bjorn Staerk?

[Evil Eco-Fascist]

And they can't even use the old "Our software can't deal with fadas!" excuse this time. Idiots.

But when subsequently transferred electronically to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the fada was removed to facilitate inclusion in shared databases within the department. This was despite the fact the department's computer system could readily handle every síneadh fada required.