Storm Ciara is due to land this weekend and while it's important to prepare for her arrival, there's a bit of a side issue that's getting people hot under the collar.
With Ciara being an Irish name, there's relatively no problems on these shores with its pronunciation. Sure if you didn't have a Ciara in your class in primary school, you may as well hand in your passport now because nobody will believe you ever lived here.
Away from Ireland though, it seems weather reporters and news anchors are having some trouble saying the words 'Storm Ciara', with the likes of 'Kee-ara', 'See-ara' and even 'See-air-a' already getting an airing.
As is usually the case when other nationalities mangle the pronunciation of our names, Irish people are taking extreme action. That's right, we've taken to Twitter and we won't stop until they get this right....
https://twitter.com/AdrianFKennedy/status/1225821634176651264
https://twitter.com/evilniamh/status/1226067460983529477
https://twitter.com/GardenGrowie/status/1225849661283586049
https://twitter.com/CiarFitz/status/1225845337627275269
https://twitter.com/GotGlint/status/1225819855082917888
https://twitter.com/Suehi9/status/1225765638066626560
https://twitter.com/EmKealey92/status/1225759290155249664
The debate is even crossing the Atlantic, in the opposite direction to Storm Ciara mind, with the USA Daily Express offering readers a handy guide under the headline 'UK’s named storm leaves public baffled', which you can read
here.
A handy tip is to remember it's Ciara like Keira Knightley and not Ciara like the mid-2000s R&B singer who was famed for her 1,2 Step. Let's hope they get this right before Storm Ciara
makes landfall later today.
