Ach go háirithe

Two more replies came in since I posted the original BANKING as gaeilge.

Halifax / Bank Of Scotland

Dear Ms O’Connor,

Firstly, thank you once again for considering Halifax for your financial services. I am confident that you have also concluded that our products are leading the market in providing superior value and service.

You may already be aware; Halifax has been in operation in Ireland for less than one year. During this time, our key focus has been the huge undertaking of opening our branch network throughout Ireland. This is imperative to ensure an efficient service is available to everyone who would like to prevail of our services.

Therefore, at this point in time, matters such as having a language policy have not yet been reviewed.

Continued expansion of our branch network throughout Ireland will be our priority over the coming months as we are excited that we are only half way through the number of branches we intend to open.

When this has been completed, I am certain that other important matters such as a language policy will be reviewed.

If you have any questions at all regarding our policies, products or services, please do contact me as I would be only too happy to assist in any way.

Yours Sincerely

M** M***
Halifax Customer Relations
Customer Service Centre
Co Louth

EBS
(I should have maybe tailored my original email to suit a building society..)

Dear Ms. O’Connor,

Many thanks for your query which I received through our internet channel www.ebs.ie.

In relation to the provision of customer documentation or correspondence in Irish, it is not something we do currently. We also have not received a request for this in the recent past, however as an organisation that listens to customers, we will review your request in this context. As you are probably aware, to facilitate your request would require both a financial and employee investment. We would need to ensure that this investment makes sense for all members of the organization prior to making a commitment to deliver on it.

We would be happy to carry out a review of the request in the context of all members of the society, however at this point in time, I can not give you any indication of what the outcome of that evaluation might be.

In relation to the range of financial services we provide, we do offer a broad range of financial products from mortgages to investments and personal loans to credit cards. I should point out to you however that we do not provide a current account facility and chequebook and this may be something that you may need to consider when making a decision.

I do hope this answers your query and that you will consider EBS as a financial provider for the future.

Regards

A*** P***
Head of Marketing

I was recently talking to a friend of mine and he was telling me about the difficulties he faced in trying to get his bank to issue an Irish language cheque book. When he finally got them to issue the cheque book, the ‘Ó’ in his name was missing the fada!
Anyway, this got me thinking…which is dangerous in itself.

I decided to write to all the major banks asking them if they had any Irish language policy in place or what they could offer me in terms of banking as gaeilge.

Some of the replies were PFO’s but some were encouraging. I went under my pen name ‘Martina Mary O’Connor’ and the initial email I sent went as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

Thanks for your time
Martina Mary O’Connor

The replies were varied and are listed below.

Bank Of Ireland

- Customer Care Unit
Dear Ms O’Connor

Thank you for your email to the Bank of Ireland Customer Care Unit.

The majority of the banking processes are done through the English Language.
Some Bank of Ireland ATMs have an Irish Language facility on them.
Cheque book can be issued in the Irish language.

Our branches in the Gaeltacht region do have Irish speakers working in them. If you would like me to enquire as to which branches would be best to accomodate your banking requirements please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely

K**** F****
Customer Care Unit

-Bank of Ireland 365 Online
Dear Ms. O’Connor,

Thank you for your email.

Bank of Ireland do not currently have an Irish language policy in place. However, we have passed your comments to our Development Team who will consider all suggestions received in our future developments.

Customer feedback is greatly appreciated by us in Bank of Ireland.

Thank you for taking the time to email us with your comments and suggestions.

Yours sincerely

E**** O*****
Customer Support
Bank of Ireland 365 Online

(more…)

AGH has recently come into the possession of an interesting piece of correspondence relating to the ongoing Dingle vs An Daingean dispute.

The article itself is a photocopy of an open letter/postcard to the people of DINGLE seemingly written by Queen Elizabeth II and sent to the Keep Dingle English campaign HQ (Tigh Uí Fhlaitheartha).

Liz seems to be chuffed with the results of the recent plebiscite in which the good folk of DINGLE, or loyal subjects as she puts it, overwhelmingly re-affirmed their Englishness.

The picture might be a bit hard to read so here is a transcript of Liz’s royal thank you to the people of DINGLE.

Loyal, Devoted Subjects of Dingle,

My personal congratulations to you all on recently re-affirming your Englishness. I’m glad I can count on your loyalty to keep elements of native rabble in their place – again good show, it means a lot to my other subjects to feel so much at home when in Dingle.

The Queen EIIR