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Roundabout name change E-mail
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Dear Editor,

I wonder how many of your readers know the names of all the Galway roundabouts.
Could you locate the D’arcy Roundabout or the Browne Roundabout or the Kirwan Roundabout or heaven forbid, the ‘No 1’ Roundabout?  Not too many, I would expect.

Admittedly giving roundabouts names that no-one but the most ardent of place-name anoraks can remember is not the most serious blunder our city representatives have ever made. It pales into insignificance when compared with the mess they made with our water and sanitation facilities. But I feel it is nonetheless worthy of comment.

Furthermore, I think it is worth asking who the roundabout names are honouring? Great national heroes? Sporting legends? Hardly!

The 14 tribes were Old English gentry and wealthy merchant families who dominated Galway's municipal government and had little in common with the majority of Galway people.

In fact, most Galway families (tribes) had trouble making ends meet while these traders rode the Galway Tiger of the middle ages. That we should celebrate this elitism with names around our city is, to say the least, debatable.

So there are both moral and practical reasons for doing something about these names. It wouldn’t take a genius to come up with something better.

Is there anyone out there to start a movement to get these idiotic names changed?

Mise le meas,
Sam Weller,
Knocknacarra

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