>In Southern Ireland, they routinely have road signs written in both English and >Gaelic and car number plates written in exclusively Gaelic!!
Road signs are normally in both English and Irish (we don't call it Gaelic), which are the two official languages of the state. Car plates in Ireland take the form of a two digit year (the year of manufacture), a one or two character county designator (based on the English name of the county) and a serial number up to 6 digits, e.g. 96-D-28812 (D=Dublin, C=Cork, LS=Laois; the more populous counties get single character codes). So you can easily tell how old a car is by the 1st 2 digits (car sales tend to peak therefore in January). To offset the lack of Irish on the plates, the name of the county is included in small letters above the actual registration number (in the same way as US plates display the name of the state) in Irish. To the left of the plate is the EU flag with the letters IRL beneath them. This format is a legal requirement since 1989, and not a matter of choice. >Though it would be stupid of me to pretend there is no anti-British feeling in >Ireland, there is a lot less than you would imagine!! Anti British feeling is quite rare now, particularly compared with 20 years ago. It is probably more akin to the way Americans are seen by Canadians. Not hostile, but we do like to keep some cultural differences. This is quite common for small countries in close proximity to larger similar neighbors; (Belgians don't like to be mistaken for French, Canadians for Americans Austrians for Germans etc). As for the EU, it is viewed much more positively here than it is in the UK for a variety of reasons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom Wade, EuroKom | E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (all domain mailers). Dale House | X400: g=tom;s=wade;o=eurokom;p=eurokom;a=eirmail400;c=ie 30, Dale Road | Tel: +353 (1) 278-7878 Stillorgan | Fax: +353 (1) 278-7879 Co Dublin | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer Ireland | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
