Sir, - It is bad enough to have to put up with the way the diphthong ou (or ow) is pronounced by a growing number of TV and radio announcers/reporters, as if giving the diphthong a slender sound is the standard way.
The pronunciation of some of our placenames on the airwaves must also be jarring for many listeners and viewers. I find it particularly noticeable in the case of placenames of two syllables, such as Kilmore, Clonmel, Kildare, Dundrum, etc, when the announcers/reporters in question put the stress on the first syllable instead of the second.
In such placenames it is generally the second syllable that is the important one and the one which distinguishes the place concerned. For instance in the placename Kilmore it is not the "Kil" (from Cill, a church), that is important, it is the fact that it is "-more" (from mor, big). Hence the stress is on the second syllable. Likewise in the case of Clonmel, it is not the Clon- (from Cluain, a meadow), that is important, but that it is -meala (from mil, honey), meaning "abounding in honey."
Recently I heard Glenroe being announced on the TV with the stress on the first syllable, which I found specially jarring. English-speaking visitors to Ireland can be excused for putting the stress on our ancient placenames on the wrong syllables. Australians always put the stress on the first syllable of their Lismore, a sizeable town in New South Wales, and that is because of the dominant English tradition in that country of putting the stress on the first syllable of placenames, irrespective of their meaning.
It would be an insult to our ancient placenames if this trend were to be become adopted on our national TV and radio. The way local people pronounce their own placenames is the true guide to their pronunciation. Where is this new trend coming from? Some Dublin-based TV presenters' elocution centre? - Yours, etc.,
William J. Hayes,
Carraig,
Roscrea,
Co Tipperary.