This page is part of the Manual of Style, and is considered a guideline for Wikipedia. The consensus of many editors formed the conventions described here, and Wikipedia articles should heed these guidelines. Before making any major changes to these guidelines, please use the discussion page to ensure that your changes reflect consensus.
These guidelines deal with the naming of Ireland-related articles. This includes both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Please follow the conventions below. If you disagree with any of the conventions, please discuss in the talk page.
To write and edit Ireland-related articles, please follow the conventions below. Note
Where the English and Irish names are different, and the Irish name is the official name, but has not yet gained favour in English usage, use the English name.
Where the English and Irish names are different, and the Irish name is the official name, and has gained favour in English usage, use the official Irish name.
Once the article name is established, any alternate name for the locale should be provided on the first line of the article (whether or not the name is widely used), as well as the proper location in the information box. The remainder of the article should use only the place name as titled in the article.
The exception to this is when a portion of the article is providing information specific to the naming of the place.
When mentioning other locales in the context of the article, conform to the rules for article titling above but do not include the alternate name along with it. An exception might be in the case of a name that is unlikely to be provided an article of its own. However, if a place name is significant enough to warrant both an English and an Irish name, it is probably significant enough for an article of its own, however brief.
Republic of Ireland / Ireland in location introductions
A large number of Republic of Ireland towns and villages (and other types of articles too) state that they are in Ireland, not Republic of Ireland in the opening paragraph. This is misleading as it creates the impression that Ireland is one state. A compromise has been proposed at WP:IWNB that the form "is a town on the coast of [[County Cork]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]" should be used. This is already widely used and will allow it to appear as Ireland whilst linking to Republic of, as per Follow_local_conventions.
If someone used the Irish version of his or her name, and this enjoyed and enjoys widespread usage among English speakers, this should be reflected in Wikipedia. Thus, we refer to Máirtín Ó Cadhain, not "Martin Kyne"; Tomás Ó Fiaich, not "Thomas Fee", etc.
In cases where someone used the Irish version of his or her name but this does not enjoy widespread usage among English speakers, then use the English version when naming the article but refer to the Irish version of the name in the first line. For example, Geoffrey Keating was Irish-speaking and probably never used that name himself. He is listed under Geoffrey Keating but the first sentence reads "Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was ...".
In Irish orthography, there is a space between Mac and the rest of the surname, e.g. Seán Mac Eoin, Seán Mac Stíofáin etc. In English orthography, there is no space between the Mc or Mac and the rest of the surname.
In Irish orthography, note that the Ó in surnames always takes an accent and is followed by a space, e.g. Tomás Cardinal Ó Fiaich, not Tomas Cardinal O'Fiaich, etc.
In Irish surnames "Mac" (Son of) and "Ó" (Of the family of) are only used for men. Use these for the English forms of women's names but use the appropriate Irish forms "Ní/Nic" (daughter of), "Mhic" ([wife] of the son of), or "Uí" (of the family of) in Irish spellings of women's surnames.
In alphabetised lists of Irish names in the English Wikipedia follow English convention and group all 'Mac's together rather than following the Irish convention (where they ignore the Mac, Ó prefixes and alphabetise by the first letter of the suffix); follow this practice even for names in Irish.
When transcribing from old(er) Irish texts which contain lenited letters (the dot above indicating séimhiú), please reflect modern usage by replacing the dot with an 'h'. Thus, Aeḋ or Aoḋ becomes Aedh or Aodh, Doṁnall becomes Domhnall, Ruaiḋri becomes Ruaidhrí, etc.
The síneadh fada (or acute accent) should be used when Irish spelling requires it; thus "Mary Robinson (Máire Mhic Róibín)", not "Mary Robinson (Maire Mhic Roibin)".
Other articles
When the English version of a name is more common and recognised by English speakers (than the corresponding Irish name), prefer that English name for the article name, but mention the Irish name, if it exists (same as dealing with geographical names, as described above).
Conversely, when the Irish version of a name is more common and recognised by English speakers, prefer the Irish name for the article name, and mention any English name in the body of the article:
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