It appears as though nothing in this State is immune to the modern need for rebranding, even where there appears to be neither want nor need.
The new Swat-style uniform being worn by members of An Garda Síochána on the streets of Dublin last week now (above) no longer carries just the word “Garda” but also “Police”. Is this an image-enhancing marketing ploy?
Whatever next?
Trevor Tory,
Baile Átha Buí,
Co na Mí.
Garda branding (Irish Times letters page)
Pics: TV3
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Is translation really rebranding?
It’s not really translation though, is it. An Garda Siochana literally means “the Guardian of the Peace” – but sure you’re welcome to take whatever sort of revisionist slant you want on it.
They’re the police force. People not from Ireland may not know what Garda or Guardian of the Peace means, so having Police on the clothes is easier to understand without use of a Irish/English dictionary. But of course, you knew that and were just being pedantic.
There is absolutely no need to put the word ‘police’ on Garda uniforms.
The style & colouring should make it obvious.
Would you recognise a French Gendarme or would the absence of the word police confuse you?
Anyway, the word Guard or translations of such are used by many police forces – such as the Guardia Civil or Guardia Urbana in Spain.
As stated below, the French uniform has police in it,.
How handy that Paris has “Underground” on all its metro stations instead of Metropolitain, so we foreigners can understand.
Bobby – the Gendarme uniform typically does not.
In France there is the ‘Police Nationale’ and the ‘Gendarmerie Nationale’, which are two separate bodies entirely.
Their version of swat does, and the picture above shows our version.
You are (deliberately or otherwise) missing the point.
We have no duty to copy the French approach in its entirety.
The point is that you would have no difficulty recognising a gendarme, or a Russian cop (I don;t know how to write the Cyrillic alphabet), or a Spanish Guardia, Italian Carabinieri etc.
If we are to be embarrased about the slightest aspect of life which is mildly unique to Ireland, perhaps you could provide some verificable anecdotes (not even statistics) of the problem the term Garda has EVER caused?
Roberts clearly a cop everyone. Careful what you say on here. And ‘Bobby’ is a questionable name too…..
Bobby Peeler…. how nostalgic…
actually, translation does not always mean transliteration
For example, (since I speak the language): you don’t translate the German ‘Aufwiedersehen’ into the literal English ‘Until-next-seeing’, rather into what its relative and commonly understood meaning in English: ‘Goodbye’.
Turning it around: any German journalist would translate ‘Gardai’ to ‘Polizei’ and not to ‘Wächter’ (lit: guardian).. (in practice they often write both, to give local flavour: “die von der irischen Polizei (An Garda Síochána) mit Unterstützung der Europäischen… “)
Perhaps it’s a statement on our failure in relation to the Irish language.
Yes. We’ve really failed the foreigners and tourists, cop on.
I would have presumed it was for those people who don’t know that ‘garda’ is Irish for ‘police’.
Outrage!
Perhaps it’s a statement that “Police” (or variants) is a fairly universally recognized word and Garda is not.
As far as I can see, the uniforms have both Police and Garda written on them.
As the letter also says.
Its disgraceful people from other countries understand English but not Irish
thats not what Padraig Pearse wrote love poems about teenage boys for
lol ‘I told you, don’t look at me head on!’
Other countries don’t use the word “police” on their uniforms, why do we?
Some do, some don’t.
If you’re going to shoot someone in the face it’s a common courtesy to identify yourself as a lawman.
What am I supposed to be outraged about?
The French swat teams had police on theirs too, internationally recognised… and not worthy of a broadsheet post
Trevor from ATHBOY, County MEATH needs to get the F out more.
Its not rebranding, it’s rendering their function in the other official language of the state.
You know, the one we all actually can fupping speak.
Calling the Seanad the Senate isn’t rebranding.
The word Garda (or Guard) is part of English as it is spoken in Ireland.
What they are is a police force though. It makes sense to say that in English.
The Met in London have police on their uniforms so people visiting know they’re police, not some gang of paramilitaries named after the city in Superman.
Not by non-irish people/non-irish speaking people, which is kind of the point
Is there really an idea that we cannot rely on anything Irish in case a foreigner has absolutely no cop on or no ability to understand context whatsoever?
Do you expect the same rules to be enforced everywhere you go?
Common courtesy. Others don’t have to be helpful, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be.
Bosca Bruscars are one thing – the police is something we can be a little more international about. It’s not like it’s even a direct translation like Policia or Polizei, it’s Guardian – foreigners could very well think they’re private security.
Here’s a Japanese police car;
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwil3Myp3ovLAhVMOBQKHfWbBkUQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gtaall.com%2Fgta-4%2Fcars%2F18056-dodge-charger-japanese-police.html&psig=AFQjCNENc0QfBWxiOm1L2at3bCnur1Yf4g&ust=1456243065196939
STOP signs are STOP signs in German and French – and these countries actually speak their first language.
*actual one
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_police_car.jpg
It is a bit different when you are otherwise using a completely different alphabet & also a different graphical style. Neither imitations exist for us.
It’s like referring to the Dail as parliament.
It’s called the Dail, in English it’s probably Assembly – but what its called doesn’t change the fact that it’s our parliament
Garda / Guardian – it’s our police / poilini
That said, it would be cool for them to be called The Guardians Of Peace. It’d be like having our own superhero team. Or possibly super villain, depending on your view.
It is the Oireachtas that is the parliament. TYypically the Dáil is translated as House of Representatives, and the Seanad as, well, Senate.
While I agree that police would be póilíní, the real issue here I think is that there should be no confusion as to the legitimacy of the officers. To the best of my knowledge, the ‘Police’ branding appears only on the uniforms of the armed response units, and in that case, not being certain that it is a legitimate police force could have fatal consequences.
Yeah but you know what I’m saying, we can label it in Irish as though it’s an Irish invention but the institution is a bicameral Westminster-style parliament. House of Commons is interchangeable with parliament, so’s the Dail.
It is so people are left in no uncertain terms who the balaclava wearing, gun wielding person who just kicked down their door is.
Writer not a Tory, ho ho, but a Troy.
It has both ‘police’ and ‘Garda’ written on it.
I noticed that immediately last week alright, the first time the word “Police” has ever been used to describe our police force to the public like that.
Only the Gardaí aren’t really just police, are they? As many have pointed out already, the words Garda Síochána mean “Guardians of the Peace” or “Civil Guard”. And as that name suggests, their role is beyond policing.
Don’t get me wrong; most of what they do is policing. But the Gardaí also oversee intelligence, they’re our MI5 to a large extent. They also carry out speed checks and motorway law enforcement, often delegated to other forces in other countries. They do close protection, armed response, highway patrol and pretty much everything that involves law enforcement here.
Maybe the Gardaí do need a rebrand; have day-to-day stuff carried out by a local police force referred to as police with the Garda Síochána remaining the overarching organisation to which they’d answer. And have everything else as an offshoot of that main “brand” rather than pretend one organisation is enough to do it all.
Separating policing activity from intelligence would also allow the taboo of non-Garda personnel being drafted in from overseas to be broken; we could have done with a fresh new face in the top job recently but they just couldn’t do it – but then what country would put a foreigner in charge of their domestic intelligence service?
We’re in the EU.
And…?
English is the business end language of the EU. Just sayin like.
So? Most countries in the EU feel little need to translate most things into English.
We get it Trevor. You are OIRISH. *sigh* No need to compensate for your surname.
Tory is an Irish word, ironically ;o)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tory#History_of_the_term
Ha, I never knew that. Cheers for pointing it out.
Sadly I knew that, and not from Wikipedia. Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Gráinne will haunt me until I die…
Actually a cool story, just the endless questions and essays for the Leaving – argh!
Interesting. I never knew that.
Lads, its obvious that all the uniforms were stolen and used in gangland violence. They had to replace 100s of them and its just cheaper to have the standard ‘Police’ on the uniforms.
In the words of our faithful leader…… ‘You’re all whingers’.
This section gets an ‘A’ in pedantics
To guard means to protect. To police means to control. It’s a pretty drastic semantic shift. Time and time again in science fiction the blurring of this line has resulted in the subjugation of mankind by rogue AIs. We can’t be too careful.
I know you’re taking the wee-wee and I’m being annoyingly earnest, but I do agree with the importance of this semantic shift.