Issue was taken recently with a long established and respected weekly newspaper circulating widely in the Irish communities in Britain, and on sale throughout Ireland including here in the west of Ireland, over an unfortunate and less than flattering article which appeared in its pages.
I will not reveal the name of the journal concerned, or that of the offending columnist, so as to spare both any further embarrassment over the gratuitous nature of the article concerned.
A furore was created locally here by the article in question when it was subsequently aired on the popular Tommy Marren Show on our local Mid West Radio (website – www.midwestirishradio.ie), with many listeners calling in objecting to the “Irish stereotype” contained in the article (and, surely, there is no room for these now, given the modern, prosperous, and dynamic Ireland that now exists). I participated in the debate which followed including an “on air” encounter with the columnist concerned, on the basis of my own longstanding connections with that town, as well as having a maternal grandfather originating from there.
In a piece entitled “That old culchie question” and responding, apparently, to a query from a Manchester reader “anxious to settle an argument”, the columnist was constrained to deal with the “vexed question” of where the word “culchie” came from. A view was expressed that it would be difficult to settle the argument inasmuch that, simply, it was suggested, there was no definitive answer.
The article went on to say that the word “culchie” is often said to originate “from the town Coillte Mach (Kiltimagh) in Co. Mayo, a fairly remote place about 10 miles further on from the back of beyond” (I return to this remark!). Reference is made to the Hiberno-English Dictionary by Terence Patrick Dolan, which suggests that the term only might have had its origins there. On the other hand, it is conjectured, it could just as easily have derived from “cul an ti” – “the back of the house”. However, a more matter of fact suggestion is that may be from the word “agriCULTural” or, it is suggested, from “coillteach”, a wooded place. The article concludes with the rejoinder “So I hope that’s cleared the matter up for all you culchies out there”.
The concern expressed locally here, in the wake of the airing of this piece, did not actually centre upon the reference to “culchies”, and the possible application of this descriptive endearment to the inhabitants of Kitimagh, a town of some 1000 or so inhabitants, located in East Mayo. Indeed, in earlier times, when perhaps tourists and visitors were more plentiful on the ground in the West of Ireland, Kiltimagh hosted for many years the very successful “Culchie Come Home Festival” and were proud to claim the word “Culchie”, whether or not it had any affiliations with the town!
No, the ire of the listeners was ignited by the proposition, in the article, and held to be both gratuitous and unwarranted, that Kiltimagh is a fairly remote place about 10 miles further on from the back of beyond. Well! To be positioned in “the back of beyond” is quite bad enough without being identified as being situate even 10 miles further on from some godforsaken part of the west of Ireland!
Kiltimagh, as a town and a vibrant community, has an excellent profile, nationally and internationally, and enjoys an enviable reputation for getting things done for itself, as any visitor to the town will soon discern. It follows that the suggestion made in the article in question met with some disapproval in the town, and its surrounding areas, and as evidenced by the volume of indignant calls to the radio station.
If, in fact, one was to take the offending statement literally and depending on your direction of travel from Kiltimagh, of course, other towns and places in East Mayo, such as Swinford, Claremorris, Ballyhaunis, Knock Shrine and Knock Airport (the latter a huge west of Ireland success) would appear to be located in a place beyond even the outer reaches of that area defined as “beyond the Pale”. This is patently untrue. Indeed, a recent report from the Central Statistics Office in Dublin suggests that in the next 15 to 20 years the largest population growth area outside Greater Dublin, will be the Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon region. These things generally do not happen in “the back of beyond” and in such a time span!
Also, once the Western rail Corridor is reopened in its entirety from Sligo to Galway, Limerick and beyond, towns like Kiltimagh, Claremorris and Swinford lying on the route of this railway will become even more strategic in their positioning than they are now. Not the stuff of the “wilderness” so described!
Having been given the opportunity to speak live on air to the columnist concerned (incidentally, he hails from the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth and confesses never to have set foot in the area maligned in his piece), I challenged the view expressed by him in his article. I was not able to accept his contention that his comments were intended to be “tongue in cheek”, suggesting to him that his utterances were more a case of “opening your mouth and putting your foot in it”. In the course of the debate, and in an attempt to digress, the columnist informed us that he had only recently returned from a trip to Iceland where he had discovered a town with a similar name to Coillte Mach, and he endeavoured to suggest that perhaps the “culchies” emanated from there! Fanciful, but unlikely!
All's well, that ends well, however, in that the presenter of the radio programme, Tommy Marren, was at least able to extract “on air”, albeit not a full apology, but an expression of regret from the said columnist for his illconsidered remarks about East Mayo.
So, beware all perpetuators of Irish clichés and stereotypes, and those writing for respected news media focussing on an Irish audience, wherever they reside. The natives are stirring in “the back of beyond”!