Moygashel locals are said to be bewildered that they were not consulted over a proposed name change in honour of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising next year. 

The Moygashel Concern Group are to hold a candlelit prayer session tomorrow night beside the War Memorial in the hope that the decision will be reversed before they are forced to resort to wrecking.

The Northern Ireland Place-Naming Cabinet maintain it is the correct decision and a real hands-across-the-divide gesture. Spokesman Harriet Herman added:

“Once we settled on Moygashel as a location, we had to decide what to call it. After several votes, we whittled it down to two options – Maigh gCaisil or Patrick Pearseland. The was the fact that the Irish sounds just like the anglicised version that swung it for us. We just need to educate the locals on how to nasally pronounce the second bit. Sure it’s only for a year.”

Moygashel Young Defenders drummer Billy Rooney is sceptical about the decision:

“This is just the start of it. We went for a long drive last Sunday and went through a place called ‘Eglish’. I’ve lived here for 61 years and I’m pretty sure it was always called ‘English’. They’re sneaking their language in by stealth. But we’re not stupid.”

Meanwhile, plans to rename the Moygashel Playpark ‘The Joseph Plunkett Slides and SeeSaw Park’ have been put on the back burner for now.