back to article Irish civil rights group takes aim at iPad launch

Apple's iPad launch could be thrown off course by a last minute objection to the device's name by a small Irish American civil rights group. Boston-based Féach ar na Féilire claims it registered the name 11 years ago for a now-defunct online advice service for Irish Gaelic speaking immigrants in the US. Pádraig O'Súil, …

COMMENTS

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  1. jake Silver badge

    Jaysus ...

    Issat t'best ye ken do?

    I might have to write a new RFC next year ... Kids these days. No clue.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice one.

    Second one of the day.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Business as Usual

    It appears that the name iPad has been used several times before, so it would be interesting to see who actually used it first. However it seems that this is business as usual for Apple, they have never been respecters of trademarks. They do, however, expect everybody else to respect theirs.

  4. Peter Mylward
    Thumb Up

    Almost had me

    I was close to falling for this until the "Mac means brother" bit, lol!

  5. SimonF
    Grenade

    Sadly this could so easily be true.

    If it were not for the date I would have no problem accepting this as true.

    What a crazy world we have invented.

    Mahone, Butt and Mahone - will they handle my divorce I wonder?

  6. MacRat
    Thumb Up

    Sweet

    Good work

  7. Paul 4

    American Irish

    "American Irish speaking community, in both America and Ireland"

    Isnt that just saying things like "oh to be sure to be sure" and talking about "The little people" rather than Gaelic? I do wish these yanks would drop that "I'm Oirish" thing. It just makes them, and us, look stupid.

    Is there even a large Gaelic speeking community (Other that those who have learnt it later in life to show how Oirish they are)?

  8. Paul 4
    Thumb Up

    Fuck.

    I forgot what day it is... I need coffee...

  9. jai

    They ought go Boondock Saints on Cupertino

    Oh wait.... What day is it today?

    Perhaps I'll wait until tomorrow before believing this article, it's just too funny to be true

  10. jeremyjh
    Pint

    A disgrace...

    http://goo.gl/vapP

  11. Richard Gray 1
    Black Helicopters

    Fight on

    Ceann deas, tá súil agam go siad amadán a dhéanamh amach de Apple

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Good one

    Ok you nearly got me! I learnt Irish in school, but it still took me a while to realise what Féach ar na Féilire means!

  13. Ruairi
    Joke

    WTF!

    Cad e sin? An bhfuil ciall ar bith ar an fhear seo?

  14. FeO Head
    Thumb Up

    OMD (Ó, mo dhia)

    Maith shibh, lads!

  15. Sleepy 3
    Thumb Down

    Oh god...

    Let me be the first to say that this tool in no way represents the Irish nation, most of whom couldn't give a toss about the Irish language, having had it rammed down our throats for the duration of our school years for no discernible benefit.

    And Mac is short for Macintosh you pillock, which isn't Irish for anything. I really, really hope you were being deliberately obtuse there, but I doubt it.

    Amadán.

  16. imagespace
    Happy

    Sure faith and begorrah!

    Very good indeed. Butt , Mahone and Butt sound like real kick-ass dudes. Should get a result there.

  17. Nigel Callaghan
    Thumb Up

    Iontach!

    'nuf said

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    1th of april

    más rud é i láthair é seo an chéad d'Aibreán dhéanamh i buaigh cúig pounds?

  19. Paul Frankheimer
    Boffin

    So what does ipad mean in Gaelic?

    The non-gealic, non-educated masses demand an answer.

  20. Bert 1

    BEEEEEEEEEEEEP

    Rotten to the core.

  21. Art Kavanagh

    Translation

    Presumably the pronouncement from the Apple spokesperson is meant to translate as "please leave a message after the tone", but I think something's gone wrong with it. Admittedly, my Irish is so rusty that it completely disintegrated a long time ago.

  22. David Evans
    Coat

    Tumbleweed

    maybe we need an icon where YOU get YOUR coat...

  23. Jimmy Floyd
    Linux

    Úll

    At least Apple have the decency not to force UK and Irish users to type with a US keyboard layout.

    Oh...

  24. Ben Rosenthal

    did he also say

    "dere's more t Ireland, dan dis" while eating a potato? :D

  25. irish donkey
    Happy

    Tiocfaidh Ar La.....Apple

    'admitted that Apple's lack of a response could've been down to the group's insistence on writing to Cupertino in Irish'

    No point in shouting at people if they don't know what you are saying. The Irish can be so sensitive not something I can personally comment on

  26. David Robinson 1

    Mahone, Butt and Mahone

    As in Pogue Mahone? Kiss my arse.

  27. LaeMing
    Thumb Up

    And so it begins

    alas.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Attorneys

    Ah yes, that well known firm "póg mo thóin", especially useful on April 1st...

  29. Colin Barfoot
    Happy

    translator needed

    This one seems pretty universal,

    http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/

  30. craig chester
    Happy

    Aibreán amadán

    Níl aon amadán mhaith agus amadán Aibreán

  31. Eoin_M
    Unhappy

    And so april 1st begins.

    Toisc gur fuaith loim an lá seo.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    teideal ag teastáil

    Tá mo madra aon srón.

    Conas a oibríonn sé smell?

    Uafásach ...

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    i wish...

    someone would slap the irish - as Rangers say, if they dont like it, go home, the potato famine ended quite some time ago.

    1. Fartin Fantastic

      Idiot

      You don't get jokes, do you....

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    mmmm

    seiceáil amach aistriú roimh flaming google ...

  35. AAWW
    Thumb Up

    Beautifully done

    That is all

  36. Wibble
    Thumb Up

    Translation:

    I think it translates to: "diddley diddly diddley top of the morning bejesus"

  37. Pete ThSplendiferous

    You need to get up a bit earlier than that!

    Mahone, Butt and Mahone you say?

  38. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

    Oh dear

    Are these the same "Irish"-American idiots that complained about the coincidental orange banner on St. Paddy's?

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Belfast accents

    I foresee issues in the Belfast apple store, as the locals struggle to pronounce the difference between the mp3 player "aye-pawd" and the tablet "aye-pad".

    </checks calendar>

  40. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Indeed

    "...and had never localised its products for Irish and other Gaelic-speaking markets"

    What's so special about Gaelic? Apple don't even localise their stuff properly for the English speaking UK market!! Try finding a '#' key on a "UK" Mac keyboard - there isn't one - you have to guess where it is. And some of the other keys are in the wrong places too - by "wrong", I mean compared to what 99% of Brits are used to.

    As for "He admitted that Apple's lack of a response could've been down to the group's insistence on writing to Cupertino in Irish" - Hilarious!! No shit?

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    El Reg's new editorial policy, SOCRATES...?

    Some Over Cautious Readers Already Twig Elaborate Sendup... ;-)

  42. AAWW

    Handy online dictionary

    For those of us who have no clue about gaelic:

    http://www.nic.funet.fi/~magi/opinnot/gaelic/irish-dic.html

    So:

    Féach ar na Féilire = look at the calendar

    Súil = eye, hence presumably Pádraig O'Súil = iPad

    That last sentence is beyond me though

  43. This post has been deleted by its author

  44. plasteredwithmuppets

    Buiochas

    Go raibh maith agat leis an aibrean amaideach. Bain me taiteamh as :)

  45. AAWW
    Thumb Up

    Ah, got it...

    It's their answerphone message - something like "we're on holiday, please leave a message after the tone".

    Courtesy of http://www.irishdictionary.ie/dictionary

    This has actually got me mildly interested in learning the language, despite the fact that I never go to Ireland.

  46. SuperNintendoChalmers
    Thumb Up

    Nice one

    Nicely done :-)

  47. Gordon is not a Moron

    hmmm

    two new authors on 1st April..... I smell a rat

  48. Alien Doctor 1.1

    Not bad

    Gan olc, níos fearr ná Bad Krautspröse

    (I think)

  49. A J Stiles
    Happy

    Féach ar na Féilire

    means literally "Look at the calendar" .....

  50. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Don't forget...

    to issue the translation this afternoon. I'm sure there's some cracking puns in the Gaelic.

  51. Satanspants
    Jobs Horns

    Aibreán amadán!

    Barr na maidne! :)

  52. exac

    An chéad lá de Aibreán

    Maith thú.

  53. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aibreán amadán

    Astounding that Apple could callously ignore the Gaelic speakers, and not provide the IPAD in that NLS localisation. And yet again the big boys trample the small fry.

    Outraged of Tumbridge Wells,

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      Irish not Gaelic....

      People in Ireland speak 'Irish' or (in Irish) 'Gaeilge'

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      how dare you............

      copy my name and address

      Even More Outraged

      Tunbridge Wells

  54. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Tá mé aon amadán

    Ghair mo stocaí amach.

  55. Elmer Phud

    Mine's in Guinness brown and cream

    Oirish Paddy, indeed.

    Apple would be more likely to call it a 'Mc' with a green case and shamrocks and not understand why it upset people.

  56. /etc
    Jobs Halo

    Input you can do

    OS X has "Irish" and "Irish Extended" on the Input Sources menu. So Apple's hardly ignoring people who have a need to type Irish Gaelic -- in fact, they're providing for two different types of keyboard (which presumably relate to variant orthographies, one being more simplified to make typing easier).

    What I suppose these people mean is that Apple doesn't distribute its software with Irish Gaelic language packs, so that the menus read in that language. Well, guess what, there must be several hundred languages that's true for. (Rather rather several thousand -- and innumerable dialects.)

    iTunes comes with a few more language packs that most Apple software and even that only has seventeen (for some 130 MB). Look in:

    /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/

    and you'll find the .lproj directories that contain them. (That is, you will unless you removed languages you don't speak with a 3rd-party tool like Monolingual.)

    How many languages do these people think that are in world? Apple isn't trying to deny the members of this organisation "civil rights"; Apple's just providing language packs when it believes there's a commercial case for it.

    If a language is widely enough used -- and particularly by people who'd have problems understanding menu items in English -- then it would make sense for Apple to add a language pack for the language in question, because it would result in more sales. This is doubtless why Japanese, for example, is there: Macs are widely used in Japan. But Apple's not going to employ huge numbers of translators and make its downloads hundreds and hundreds of megabytes bigger than they need to be (because of all the extra language packs) where no real demand exists.

    What these people should do, if they really want interfaces in Irish Gaelic in Mac programs, is offer their services as translators free to people writing open-source Mac programs. Adium, for example, comes with quite a few packs in it, including, I think, even Catalan. That's because people who've wanted that have offered their services.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      You really are...

      ...an idiot, aren't you? Stop giving Apple fans a worse name than they have already.

    2. M man
      FAIL

      OMD áit a bhfuil an eochair scriosadh

      hahahahahahah

      funnier then the pun

  57. Nigel Callaghan

    Gaeilge go brách

    Judging by the (pleasantly surprising) number of Reg commentards who seem to have at least a cúpla focal even if we're not absolutely líofa, the future of Gaeilge is assured! (after all, if Google translate can handle it then what more is needed)

  58. This post has been deleted by its author

  59. hammo
    Jobs Horns

    apple, póg mo thóin

    In related news a papal nuncio has been issued stating that Steve Jobs is a false God and owning a Jesusphone is deadly sin number 8

  60. Chatelaine

    Oh dear!

    Lots of people taking this seriously, aren't there? I love the idea of a few cainteoiri Gaeilge taking on the might of Apple, but let's be honest: we'd soon get sidetracked from our just and righteous protest into the nearest pub, wouldn't we? :-)

  61. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Isn't "íPad" a completely different trademark (for small stationery sheets on a perforated roll)

    If this was real they'd be saying "You couldn't make it up."

    I think an "intosh" means "yer feckin raincoat", an indispensable hereditary garment in all Celtic lands. It has been determined with great care that "feckin" is a word in its own right distinct from others with similar sounds, although not what, if anything, it means. Perhaps "Please give your attention to what I am saying".

  62. Ken 16 Silver badge
    Go

    Despite the anti-English rhetoric, it was hosted on a server in Dudley

    with the world recognised .dy domain suffix

  63. David 24
    Flame

    Load of crap

    Such a load of crap. Seriously, do they not speak English in Boston. This guy seriously needs to get an education and learn to speak Americanese like the rest of America or shut the hell up.

    This Irish language thing is not funny anymore. The amount of tax money spent translating all manor of stuff to Irish language is crazy. Things like government literature and road signs etc. I heard recently in Northern Ireland they are teaching Irish, a dead language to civil servants during working hours. And its funded by the government. There is no-one on this earth who speaks Irish who cannot also speak English.

    Its astounding no one is putting a stop to it.

    If you want to talk in Irish then move to a country that speaks it. ( wherever the hell that is)

    1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Headmaster

      Dead Language?

      Looks like Englissh is a dead language as well, did you mean "translating all manner of stuff"? Here, I'll explain it to you.

      Main Entry: man·or

      Pronunciation: \'ma-nər\

      Function: noun

      Etymology: Middle English maner, from Old French manoir, from manoir to sojourn, dwell, from Latin manēre — more at mansion

      Date: 14th century

      1 a : the house or hall of an estate : mansion b : a landed estate

      2 a : a unit of English rural territorial organization; especially : such a unit in the Middle Ages consisting of an estate under a lord enjoying a variety of rights over land and tenants including the right to hold court b : a tract of land in North America occupied by tenants who pay a fixed rent in money or kind to the proprietor

      Main Entry: man·ner

      Pronunciation: \'ma-nər\

      Function: noun

      Etymology: Middle English manere, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *manuaria, from Latin, feminine of manuarius of the hand, from manus hand — more at manual

      Date: 12th century

      1 a : kind, sort <what manner of man is he> b : kinds, sorts <all manner of problems>

      2 a (1) : a characteristic or customary mode of acting : custom (2) : a mode of procedure or way of acting : fashion (3) : method of artistic execution or mode of presentation : style b plural : social conduct or rules of conduct as shown in the prevalent customs <Victorian manners> c : characteristic or distinctive bearing, air, or deportment <his poised gracious manner> d plural (1) : habitual conduct or deportment : behavior <mind your manners> (2) : good manners e : a distinguished or stylish air

      There; fixed it for you.

  64. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    @David 24 Two words

    Ulster Scots.

    .One more word: Havers.

  65. lucsan
    WTF?

    Waz it being meantz?

    Am speaker not for rish nor nglish speakering nor comprehendo, am not aving clue to wat lot youz be sayink nor meez unersant me zelv eifer.

  66. Steve Sutton
    Grenade

    Damnit!

    My own stoopid fault for not putting dates of articles in my RSS reader - I thought I was still at March 31st!

    Still, you're bastards for getting me!!!

  67. Christopher Cowan

    Learning Irish

    For those of you looking to learn Irish the BBC have some good free resources:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/irish/features/8/english/

  68. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    title

    You may not realise it, but there is a Welsh language option on the ipod touch

  69. crypt
    Linux

    Gó maith

    Ansin mó comrádaí , an Register ag magadh thú.

    I think thats the most irish ive used in about a decade

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      bheul ...

      comghardaitheas leat!

  70. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Someone's been busy at Google Translate

    I wasn't very impressed when they added Irish to the list of languages supported a few months ago, but it seems to be doing a much better job now.

    http://translate.google.com/#ga|en|

  71. M Neligan
    Troll

    Shane lives!

    Sadly, it appears that many Reg readers are too busy concentrating on their work to cast an eye at the calendar - or do they need to see flying penguins to be reminded of the date? And to some of the less courteous among them, I would like to issue a cordial invitation to bestow an osculatory salutation upon my Hibernian fundament.

  72. BongoJoe
    Flame

    Heritage

    David24 shoudl remember that perhaps there are people who live in Ireland who do speak Gaelic and not English. Not only that the Gaelic language is just not cute and postcard fodder but is a actually an important part of one's history and culture.

    Following on from your argument we ought to stop speaking Proper English and we all use American English because no-one in the world who speaks English can't understand the American version.

    As a Welsh learner living in a Welsh speaking community I have learned to understand why Welsh is important. It's those looking in who have no idea why it is. The same would apply over in Ireland. And to counter your future argument; I know of families on the Lleyn who can't speak English - not won't.

  73. James T
    Pint

    apple needs a lesson LOL

    When I was just a little lad I used to go to school

    I’d sit down there in the seat, feeling like a fool

    The teacher taught us everything, everything we know

    She had a great big lump of a stick that was bent into a bow

    CHORUS:

    She’d go “Aon focal, da focal, two focal eile,

    And I not knowing no focal at all

    She’d go “Aon focal, da focal, two focal eile

    And I not knowing no focal at all

  74. This post has been deleted by its author

  75. jeremy_the_great
    Jobs Horns

    idk what to think anymore actually.

    i'm in the hot coffee vending business and i use mac os (leopard) as a more convenient tool for business. maybe i'd switch to ipad after some time since it looks like user-friendly.

    __________________________________

    http://www.vendingpriceline.com

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