Bad luck 'O' the Irish: Apostrophe in name could get you thrown off flights in ID mix-up

We can always replace the apostrophe with a lower case g. and Ms O'Donnell could always go by Ni Donaill. Of course then we miss the fada. Risteard og Baoghill

Being as my name is O'Neill I guess I'll have to take a bus the next time I go to Ireland.

Our IBM Credit Union has on entering a user ID, drop the first letter and as well as the apostrophe!!!!!!!!!

WHAT HAPPENED TO COMMON SENSE?

I think its a bunch of BS. If they do this then I better not see anyone wearing a towel boarding any flight I take.

the liberal leftists want air travel reserved for the liberal elite, you sir are a complete nut job.

I think the TSA is doing their utmost to make air travel as difficult as possible. Why? Because they want to turn people against air travel. The liberal leftists in charge of the TSA want air travel reserved only for the liberal elite. Read Al Gore's book, it clearly states that 'ordinary' people should not be allowed access to air travel or privately owned vehicles. Every additional hardship the TSA places on air travelers brings us closer to a time when only the elite will be allowed to fly.

For God's sake, how fecking hard is it to include a '?

In answer to HYATTSVILLE all of my past comments have been wiped out too. Vincent Ruane

I love the site and everything Irish

All the problems in the world and they come up with this. Really stupid.

This is outrageous.

O'Lordy, McNabb, it's not hard to get your dander up, is it? But then I should forgive you as you are a Scot and obviously a good friend to the Irish. My point was that the O followed by an apostrophe is an English rendition of Ó. Some Irish people with formally apostrophised surnames only use the Ó when writing their names in Irish. Otherwise they omit the apostrophe and just carry on. For example, Niall O'Dowd becomes Niall O Dowd. Granted, this might suggest to some that his middle name is Oliver, or Oswald, but to those who have any familiarity with the issue there would be no problem. Nor, by the by, would there be any difficulties at JFK, or O Hare. What's happened is that we have taken the anglicisation of gaelic practice (adopted to enable the English to understand Irish names) and endorsed it as if it were the real thing – which is a bit weird. Logically, those who think it important to be seen as Irish should use the Irish form of their names. Thus, Niall would (I think) be Niall Ó Dubhda. But this mainly happens if you're standing for the Dáil. It is as if the Irish forms can only be used within the community. Perhaps the analogy is with names that were originally written in, say, Arabic, or Cyrillic, or Chinese: if we didn't have English transliterations of thse, we wouldn't know who we were talking to. But the end result is that Irish-Americans who write letters to the Voice (and more particularly the Echo) sometimes sign off with a gaelic flourish, as if they really spoke the language rather than just copying from Edward MacLysaght (Éamonn Mac Giolla Iasachta). In my own case, born with the obstinately un-Irish monicker Walter Ellis, I ended up at the passport office as something like Ualtír Mc Ghillogacht. No doubt, gaelgoirs can tell me what I'm really called (apart from Smug B*****d, that is). It'd be nice to know. Anyhow, McNabb, it's a braw bricht morning here in Brooklyn. I hope it's as nice where you are.

@Watchman... "O'Dear, O'Dear. Shouldn't youse all be dropping the apostrophes, anyway?".....If that's an attempt at humor then that's yet another EPIC FAIL for you, my friend. If wasn't, then that's just pathetic. You always secretly wanted an "O" name, didn't you? .....This is just another in a centuries-old line of attack on Irish identity and culture, in big ways and small ways. And, like all the rest, it will be dealt with and done away with.

Well whatever about the vanishing apostrophes, which by the way will nullify a lot of French too not to mention a whole bunch of African Americans, what about my missing profile page? Anyone else have their profile and past comments wiped off Irish Central?