Some are anglicisations of Viking and Norman words as well, just to add even more obscurity into the mix. They did want to change the Dingle area of Kerry back to An Daingean recently though I'm not sure thats really necessary as the names we do know are fairly well recorded (for towns at least). Preserving the small townsland names would be more important since they do hold some important clues about the area and how/why it was settled and are at much greater risk of being lost.
I wish they <i>would</i> change Drogheda back to Droichead Athá (Old Bridge) though, it gets embarrasing when all the tourists, Pope JPII and even Bill Clinton call it Dro<i>g</i> Hee da, which sounds like nothing in the Irish language.
