Irish Place-names

Just my luck -- I forgot to wear green for Saint Patrick's Day; but I did take time to read an appropriate blog post for the occasion.  It was written with Ireland in mind, by Juan José Valdés, The Geographer, Director of Editorial and Research for National Geographic Maps.  I recommend you go read the complete text and see the map at blogs.ngm.com (NGM Blog Central).

"English or Gaelic — What's in a [Place] Name?"

"... our maps generally list official place-names first, followed by their secondary name or names in parentheses. Take Ireland for example…"

"According to the Republic of Ireland's constitution, the Irish and English languages share official status. In the Gaeltacht, or predominantly Irish-speaking regions, only Irish place-names have official status. ... In the non-Gaeltacht areas, you will find that English is the official language. Simply put, just about every single place-name in Ireland has a dual name: Gaelic (English) in the Gaeltacht regions or English (Gaelic) in the non-Gaeltacht regions. That equates to nearly 1,000 place-names displayed ... [for] Ireland."  -- blogs.ngm.com

Again, I thank Wikipedia for providing an easy reminder:

"Saint Patrick's Day ... is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It is named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland."  -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki

I hope you're wearing green, and enjoying healthy green food (probably not the fast type today, although I did enjoy a quick, leftover tossed green salad.)