As calls to update government ICT systems to include the Irish language ‘fada’ grow louder, many dismiss the demand as a waste of public money. But for Irish language campaigners, recognising this linguistic accent is more than just a box-ticking exercise, it’s recognition of the central role Ireland’s native language should play in its culture, society and technological infrastructure. 

The ‘síneadh fada’, or simply ‘fada’ as most of us know it by, is a teeny little thing. I remember generously anointing my vowels in primary school with the jaunty little fellow, most often in error – it seemed like an ornament too fun not to use. Nowadays, I find satisfaction in pressing and holding the vowel keys on my laptop to select the little fella, which generally only gets an outing with me personally in the names of people I email.

The fada is small, but to Irish speakers it’s actually a very big deal indeed.

In February 2019, Irish speaker Ciarán Ó Cofaigh took a case against the HSE, which he alleged was in breach of EU rules for refusing to correct his name in its records to include the síneadh fada. University Hospital Galway had informed Ó Cofaigh, a patient there, that its computer software does not allow for the accent, which in Irish, Ireland’s native language, is used to elongate a vowel.

Its omission can greatly affect the pronunciation and meaning of a word (for example, the Irish name ‘Seán’ is different to the Irish word ‘sean’, which means ‘old’) but in April, the Data Protection Commissioner ruled that a person has no absolute right to have their records rectified by the HSE. Therefore, essentially, Ó Cofaigh does not have a right to have his name spelled with the síneadh fada.

For Ó Cofaigh, there should be no choice around whether to include the fada in his name – for him, and indeed for all Irish language campaigners, it’s not an optional extra but a crucial part of an individual’s personal data. He and other passionate Irish language campaigners believe that if the tools of a nation’s public service system are seemingly incapable of accommodating the symbols of its own national language, then they are not fit for purpose. However, the cost and time involved in upgrading software systems to include such symbols could be significant – and many say that such an expense, at a time when the healthcare system is in dire straits, would be indulgent.

Irish people with the síneadh fada in their name point out that they encounter technological difficulties at every turn ¬– when registering for a LEAP transport card for example or buying tickets on Irish Rail. The Aer Lingus booking system informs users that names may contain only letters, spaces, apostrophes and hyphens and will not accept fadas. 

In December 2019, an Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 2019 was approved by Government, in what could herald good news for the fada. Central to this Bill is the manner in which Irish language services are delivered, and it states that “a new requirement will be introduced requiring public bodies to introduce measures to accommodate the Irish language version of a person’s name on their ICT systems.”

How that requirement pans out in practical terms (and how much it costs) is yet to be seen. Will 2020 be the year that the fada makes its glorious debut in booking systems and databases across the land? As someone with some fondness for this iconic ornament of Irishness (even though my own name lacks such decoration) I can only hope it proves to be.

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