In recent news, the Government of Ireland has come under fire for a terrible lapse of judgment concerning an Irish language document. As confirmed by a spokesperson for the Department of Arts, Heritage, and Gaeltacht, Google Translate was utilized to translate the Irish language into English on a government website that promotes 1916 Rising commemorations.
The use of Google Translate text was due to miscommunication and poor fact checking on the part of the Government. It is said that the mistake occurred because the department sent the text to an outside company that was contracted to design the website. They, in turn, used Google Translate to get a draft version of the Irish text that would be used as a placeholder. In this way, they would be able to see how much space the official version would require and enable the company to design around it.
The draft version was to be replaced by an official Irish translation that was supposed to be supplied by the department. Unfortunately, when the website went live, the official translation was nowhere to be seen.The poor translation of the document by Google Translate has cause the Irish people to get in an uproar; they said the result is nonsensical.
Since then, however the offending text has been removed and has been replaced by the correct and official Irish version. Opponents said that this lapse in judgment shows a lack of care for the country’s native language. The government is accused of simply being lazy with regard to the translation.
Since this incident, the department has made an effort to engage with the 1916 relatives and was disappointed that representatives from the 1916 Relatives Association did not make an appearance at the GPO recently. However the department door is open and they are very open to working with the association.