Talk:Spiddal

Untitled
Shurely Spiddal is a village, not a town? Or has it grown that much? And no mention of the mighty Boluisce river? Flippin' Jupiter.--shtove 00:13, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Why don't you contribute Shtove, that's what Wikipedia is all about. Instead of people complaining about the lack of information, people can actually contribute and add missing info.

Rename this article
Recent Irish government policy regarding names in the Gaeltacht means that 'An Spidéal' is the the only official name. Spiddal is an now unofficial anglicised version of it. I recommend that the article be renamed accordingly.
 * WP:IMOS. We use the English names over the Irish ones as this is the English language Wikipedia. --Kiand 23:40, 16 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, well, the English name has no official standing whatsoever now, and so is redundant as Peking, Bombay or Rhodesia. It's getting moved! --MacRusgail 19:05, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
 * And moved back. Your move is against long-held concensus. The article stays at "Spiddal", for that is what it is called in English. --Kiand 19:10, 9 August 2006 (UTC)


 * This is all fine and well, but are any of you aware that the names in the Gaeltachtai have all been changed to their Irish versions recently? This means that names in the Gaeltacht are now all Irish, even in English (Ireland being largely English speaking of course), but that names such as Dublin and Cork retain their English equivalents in official usage. --MacRusgail 17:23, 13 August 2006 (UTC) p.s. Have you moved Zimbabwe back yet? You'd better do so. Those pesky natives have renamed the place.
 * No, they've changed to the Irish version of their name being the official version. It takes a hell of a lot of zealous spin to try and claim that they've changed the English version - because they haven't. Please cease vandalising this article, as your changes, which are in violation of the Manual of Style and the convention to use English can be seen as nothing else. --Kiand 17:48, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that maybe a compromise should be that the article should be renamed to the official name An Spidéal but that Spiddal should redirect here and the article should start off with an explanation as to the official changes and what the English name is?

142.167.211.119 00:04, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Thats not a "compromise" thats a "direct contravention of policy"

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcutta even though the vast majority of English speaking people in the world still call it Calcutta, it has been renamed to reflect the official name. Why can this not be done here? Spiddal DOES NOT EXIST anymore. 89.101.58.245 (talk) 10:31, 27 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Excellent point, re Calcutta above. Only rarely do I hear "Spiddal" instead of "An Spidéal" and I'm the son of undereducated monoglot English speakers from the so-called "Pale" (Meath). It's just ignorance to want to change the name into English just to suit the cultural and educational ignorance of the lowest common denominator. I'm proud to be more educated (thanks to my parents) and culturally enlightened than my parents who still had ideas of inferiority to their old colonial master. Those days are over: An Spidéal is a sign of that. 109.76.214.233 (talk) 22:51, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

I live in An Spidéal. It's name is An Spidéal. "Spiddal" doesn't mean anything. Change it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaitiúÓC (talk • contribs) 17:26, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

I'm glad to see that common sense has prevailed with the naming of the article on An Spidéal; I stopped contributing to Wikipedia after one too many ' contributions' on Irish placenames by people who knew feck all about my country but still wanted to force is to accept anglicised names we had moved on from. Why is the article name incorrectly An Spideal, missing the fada accent on the e, though? Taibhdhearc (talk) 20:23, 5 January 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I can't put a fada in the title of the page. Rather stupid really. Should be "An Spidéal". — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seabharus (talk • contribs) 18:14, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Deleted information?
Previous versions of this page (dated back to December 2006) contain the following information:

"The town has 2 shops (one with a petrol station), and 4 restaurants (including a Supermac's franchise outlet). There are also a number of pubs in the town. On most weekend nights and sometimes during the week in summer time there is live traditional Irish music in the pubs. Hughes' pub in the centre of the village hosts traditional music sessions where famous musicians sometimes play. The pub An Crúiscín Lán was another music venue but it was recently transformed into a hotel by John Foye. The Boluisce, named after a local lake, is another popular pub-restaurant for seafood. Once a year, Spiddal welcomes 25 American students spending a semester abroad at the nearby Park Lodge Hotel. The students, from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Collegeville Township, Minnesota, spend a the autumn months studying gaelic literature and culture."

This section keeps getting deleted though. Can someone explain to me why this information isn't pertinent or useful in the context of the page? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.65.94.127 (talk) 06:42, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

fishing in spiddal
The fishing in spiddal can be quite good during the summer months.From the habour wall fishing across to the river mouth can be very good for flounder and dabs,also at the head of the habour wall small ballen wrasse can be caught.Dogfish can be a pest at times from this spot but keep fishing because thornback ray are caught here regulary.From the back of the harbour there is nice rough ground with pollock caught especially in the evening on a rising tide,also caught here are nice size bass but not in large numbers.Of course for the tourist angler the mackerel shoal all around the habour and are very easy to catch!The biggest shoal of mackerel i have ever witnessed was at the back of the habour on an august evening two years ago! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.46.59.143 (talk) 23:39, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was not moved -- Aervanath (talk) 17:49, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

There are Irish towns outside the Gaeltacht whose official names are in Irish and this is reflected in their page titles. (see Muine Bheag, Dún Laoghaire, etc.). The same precedent exists for many towns and cities all over the world where anglicized versions are not used (e.g. Orléans, Angoulême, etc.). As a resident of the Galway Gaeltacht, I feel obliged to request a change of the names of Gaeltacht placenames to their one and only offical version, as reflected by all current road-signage and by the laws of the Irish State. Nmacu (talk) 14:01, 7 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Oppose See WP:IMOS: we use English, unless the Irish name is official and has gained favor in English; Muine Bheag has. If this is another case, it should not be difficult to show, without dragging in the (probably unwise) use of Orléans. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 18:41, 7 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose: per PMAnderson's reasoning. Ghits for "An Spidéal" is only 25,400 compared to "Spiddal's" 123,000 which supports the WP:IMOS use of the English naming for now. ww2censor (talk) 03:00, 9 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Support per proposer. Deviation from official names is a source of POV facilitation on Wiki. Googling has nothing to to with it. Orléans has clearly not "gained favor in English". Sarah777 (talk) 07:24, 10 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose per WP:UCN, WP:UE, and User:Pmanderson's argumement above. Notice that almost all of the other Gaeltacht towns in this list also use English names. —   AjaxSmack   02:05, 11 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose - just that its "official" that does not mean its most common. Djegan (talk) 18:51, 11 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I see three people follow Pamela Anderson's arguments and two have actually got a rationale for supporting the move. WP:SNOW I'd say. Let's move it. Sarah777 (talk) 22:50, 12 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Oppose. We use the name most commonly used in English, be it the official name or not. That's why we have Brussels, Belgrade, Cologne, Munich etc. Jafeluv (talk) 07:00, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Article name
Following the procedures in other Gaeltacht towns, I changed the first words of the article to the Irish version. Because a) It's what I've seen on the other Gaeltacht town pages and b) There's no such town as 'Spiddal' though the town name is often anglicised as such. - Dalta (talk) 14:22, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, makes sence. Ceoil  20:29, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * This is not an Irish government websire - we use the most common name in English WP:COMMONNAME and WP:IMOS as a rule. Djegan (talk) 22:00, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm not a member of the Irish government and indeed my taxes help to ensure that government and its state continues. An Spidéal is far and away the most common name for this village. That you don't feel educationally qualified enough to accept this and feel the need to push your English Ireland plebeian agenda down our throats is your problem. Grow up. 109.76.214.233 (talk) 22:57, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Spoken language
I removed an assertion that English is the language used in everyday speech. Previously there was an assertion that Irish was the everyday language. Neither assertion was sourced, and I can't find a reliable source myself.--A bit iffy (talk) 10:32, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

The census of 2011 shows the majority to be Irish. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MaitiúÓC (talk • contribs) 17:39, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

An Spidéal / Spiddal
An Spidéal/Spiddal is within the Gaeltacht, which means that An Spidéal is its only official name. Thus, the infobox should look like this:

However, the current infobox has this the wrong way about.

The article should also say that An Spidéal is the official name. I suggest we add a footnote to the infobox saying: "As this is a Gaeltacht village, the Irish An Spidéal is the only official name." This would appear in small writing.

All other Gaeltacht towns/villages uze this layout. An Spidéal is currently the only one that doesn't. As you can see, it would only affect the infobox and doesn't go agenst the IMOS. ~Asarlaí 23:01, 6 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Seems like this has been discussed periodically but never gained consensus. What is the advantage of the change you propose? --John (talk) 23:04, 6 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The advantage is that readers will be made aware that the official name is An Spidéal. It'll also bring the article into line with other Gaeltacht articles. Note: I'm not suggesting the article be renamed. ~Asarlaí 23:11, 6 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Does anyone gainstand the proposed changes? ~Asarlaí 18:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)
 * It's been more than a week and nobody has replied, so I went ahed with the changes. ~Asarlaí 15:57, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

The article needs to be moved to An Spidéal, since "An Spideal" is just wrong. Claíomh Solais (talk) 22:42, 14 April 2017 (UTC)


 * The aggressive opposition to allowing people to name their own territory is deeply problematic. As other people have pointed out, other colonial names have been changed on Wikipedia despite still having currency in English outside the place referred to.  Why should the Gaeltachtaí be any different?  It’s utterly bizarre to see an article titled Carraroe and hard not to hear it in an RP accent.   --⚜ Moilleadóir ✍ 02:13, 9 January 2023 (UTC)