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27th June 2018
11:29am BST
Ireland is a beautiful place and as permanent residents on this land, we don't like to hear any negative words being said about our little country.
However, we feel that this negative review about one of Ireland's most famous and scenic towns will stir up some debate.
Dingle in Kerry is the place and the complaint has absolutely nothing to do with the place itself, but rather the people in it...
In a strong letter sent to The Irish Independent, a tourist complained that on his recent trip to Dingle, he was left disappointed after he felt "unfortunate to not have encountered Irish speakers", says a language planner.
He said that "few, if anybody there speaks as Gaeilge" and that "we naively expected that, being in Dingle, in the Gaeltacht, the Irish language would be spoken widely throughout."
He added that none of the staff at his accommodation were able to communicate with himself and his wife in even the most basic of Irish "despite the town being festooned with business and street names as well as directional signs in Irish".
Speaking in the Kerryman, language planner Áine Moynihan admitted that more needed to be done to help people access the language and that a language plan was currently being put together.
She added that the people of Dingle should be aware that the language is its biggest unique selling point over similar tourist towns.
"People from all over, including from outside the country, come here because they love to hear the language...these people were very unfortunate not to encounter Irish on their trip."
Is this a fair review of Dingle? Are there any other places in Ireland that you have visited in Ireland where you were shocked to hear the lack of Irish being spoken?
Let us know in the comments.
