GLANBIA IRELAND AND Glanbia Co-op have rebranded to Tirlán.

The food giant announced the new name to employees and farmer shareholders yesterday at an event in Kilkenny. According to the company, Tirlán is based on the Irish words for land and full.

“Combining the Irish words ‘Tír’ for land and ‘Lán’ for full, Tirlán stands for ‘Land of Abundance’ and represents the deep connection and relationship between the Co-op, its people and the land they nurture together to farm and sustain,” it said in a statement. 

But the new name has been criticised by Irish speakers due to the misspelling of tír. 

‘Tír’ means country in Irish, but ‘tir’ without a fada is not a recognised word in the Irish language. The Irish word for abundance is ‘neart’ or ‘flúirse’.

The name has also been criticised for how the words ‘country’ and ‘full’ could be interpreted.

One person on Twitter said the rebranding was “disappointing”.

“Very easy to get the spelling of Tír right. First thing many people will think of when they see Tír lán is a full country/anti-immigration message. So many beautiful Irish words that could have been used for abundance.”

Another person wrote: “Whose idea was this and did they consult a single Irish speaker? Tir is not an Irish word and Tirlán is nonsensical.”

Speaking to The Journal, South Dublin County Councillor Peter Kavanagh said: “It’s unfortunate, but from the point of view of being an Irish speaker, we’re used to it at this stage. It’s sad, it’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising. It’s not shocking, and our outrage at this stage would be well spent like. It’s done, we just have the acceptance of it.”

This is the most stupid name in the storied history of stupid names based on stupid rationales.

"Tir" isn't a word. "Lán" is not a synonym for abundant. Are you trying to say the country is full? https://t.co/D6AolTGwXd

— Cllr. Peter Kavanagh (@TheKavOfficial) September 1, 2022

New York-based brand strategy and design company Siegel+Gale were behind the rebranding of Glanbia.

In a statement about the rebranding on their website, the design company states: “Tirlán, derived from the combination of the Irish words ‘tir’ for “land or territory,” and ‘lán,’ meaning “full,” offers a sense of land full of green, full of nature and full of bounty. Truly fulsome and deeply connected to the Earth, coming through in everything they do. ”

Kavanagh said that while a private company is entitled to rebrand whatever way they want, Irish speakers now expect “nonsense words ‘inspired’ by Irish”. 

“In this instance, reading through the rationale from the design company, it doesn’t even appear to be a conscious decision to drop the fada on tír, it looks to be a typographical error,” he said.

“It’s just nonsense words, as if Irish is some fantasy language invented by Tolkien and we can do whatever we want with it because, you know, it doesn’t matter, nobody speaks it anyway. But we’re looking at this going no, there’s thousands and thousands of Irish people who speak Irish.

“Even if you go beyond those who use it on a daily basis, you’ve probably got the majority of Irish people who will claim that they understand Irish.”

He also questioned the rationale behind putting the words tír and lán together.

“The entire idea of taking the words country and full and putting it together, I just can’t understand how there wasn’t somebody in a room at any stage that sort of went: ‘maybe this isn’t the best idea in the world’,” he said.

“If somebody asks me what are the first things I think of if we put the words country and full beside each other, my first thought is not abundant food and green countryside. That’s not quite what it says to me.”

Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, told The Journal that the misspelling is “a shame”.

“I suppose the original idea that they had was to use Irish and then in the same sentence that they spell out what it means, they lose the síneadh fada in tír,” de Spáinn said.

“To go from Glanbia, where you had two words that were spelled correctly whatever way they put them together, to two words put together where one is spelled incorrectly, it’s just something on a continuous basis that’s going to be pointed out.

“It’s going to be noticed by people in Ireland, because people do realise that tír is spelled with a fada, so it will look incorrect as they go forward.”

De Spáinn said that leaving out the fada in words can create problems for companies.

“For example, Eircode doesn’t have a fada on the ‘Eir’ part of it, and with Éire, I suppose they’re trying to say it’s Ireland. But if you take off the fada from Éire, it actually means burden. So what the Eircode name actually means is ‘burdensome code’.”

Despite the misspelling in Tirlán, de Spáinn said the company choosing to have an Irish name is still a good thing.

“It’s positive in the fact that they want to use Irish, that they feel that that’s important to their identity, and that’s to be welcomed,” he said.

“If I was to say anything, I would ask the Glanbia group to go back and to add the síneadh fada, and at least then they’re trying to correct it.”

In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for Glanbia said: “Tirlán translates as Full Country or Land, which for us communicates as Land of Abundance. It comes from the words ‘Tir’, meaning land or territory, and the word ‘Lán’, meaning full.

“We have used one fada to simplify the name and make it more relevant in a global context as we export to 80 countries,” the spokesperson said.

“We chose to include one of the fadas as a distinct Irish reference and looked at other well-known consumer brands which also include an accent (such as Nescafé and many others).”