More than 60 years on, the media still swallow distorted information

THE contemptible arrogance of the Government seems to know no bounds. Last year, Eamon Ó Cuív announced that the name of Dingle was being changed to An Daingean on all road signs, whether the people of Dingle liked it or not.

They did not like it and made that clear in a postal referendum, calling for the retention of Dingle by a majority of 91.7%. It was a majority rarely ever associated with truly democratic votes. But this week we learned that County Council workers are still obliterating Dingle from road signs and replacing it with An Daingean. The council workers say they are under orders from the Coimisinéir Teanga. Who is he taking his orders from? It is certainly not the people.

We tolerate this contemptible affront to our democracy at our own peril. This was even worse than the arrogance of the same Government in 2003 when the minister responsible for the Freedom of Information amending bill went off to the races at Cheltenham for the week while the bill was being debated in the Oireachtas.