A Donegal man has succeeded in his battle to have the name of the county’s most famous mountain changed to its proper title.
Loughanure man Patrick McCafferty recently contacted Wikipedia to point out that the mountain’s official title is Errigal and not Mount Errigal as had been listed.
The online encyclopaedia has now taken Mr McCafferty’s remarks on board and removed the ‘Mount’ misnomer.
The name Mount Errigal began to creep into use in the 1980s when a hotel in Letterkenny of the same name was built. It is now used regularly, and inaccurately, on tourism sites. So much so that in 2016 national tourist authority Fáilte Ireland apologised for using the term ‘Mount Errigal’ to market the peak in its Wild Atlantic Way North West guide.
Welcoming Wikipedia’s decision, Mr McCafferty said, “The way it works with Wikipedia is that you put a proposal forward and it is considered by different editors. I had five or six people supporting me and they all gave good reasons why the name should be changed.
“My proposal got a discussion going and at the end of a week Wikipedia made the change.”
A Google search reveals that dozens of sites including walkingroutes.com, roughguides.com and allaroundireland.ie still have the mountain listed under its incorrect title. But Patrick McCafferty has ruled out a full-blooded crusade to right the name wherever he finds it.
“I’ve done my bit for the mountain,” he laughed.
“But it is a good example of the power of the written word over the spoken word. Locally people say Errigal yet in writing it is regularly called Mount Errigal. So it highlights the power of marketing compared to the spoken word.”
There is a further complication in that Ordnance Survey maps have Errigal down as ‘Errigal Mountain’.
“Somewhere along the line the name has been translated from Irish into English and someone has stuck a ‘mountain’ on the end to let people know it is a mountain,” said Mr McCafferty.
“That has become the official name so again you have this clash between what people say and what is written down.
“But as I say, I have done my bit. I would though encourage people to take up the campaign and if they see the wrong name, send an email and let the website know.”
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