'Deeply infuriating': The Irish speakers fed up over fada-less forms and flights

Between Kneecap, CMAT's dual-language single Euro-Country and Jessie Buckley's closing words when accepting her Oscar, it feels like the Irish language is having a moment.

Its renaissance in the cultural world has made it more prominent far beyond Ireland's borders, with cúpla focal - a few words - being heard on streets and in classrooms as far away as New York and Sydney.

But inside the Republic of Ireland, where Irish has been the first official language (English is second) for nearly 90 years, there is a problem.

The fada, the small, skyward pointing accent placed on vowels, and the inability in recent years of some of Ireland's biggest companies - such as Aer Lingus - to recognise it.

The fada changes the pronunciation of words but also, crucially, their meaning.

Believe us when we say that you wouldn't want a slice of caca instead of cáca.

The fade on fadas has even led one Irish MEP to say that nobody ever spells his name wrong in Brussels, Strasbourg or the UK, but they frequently do in Dublin.

So what's going on? Does the reluctance to embrace the fada point to something deeper with how Ireland grapples with its own language?

Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is one of those who are fed up with it.

Abroad, people spell his name correctly because "they copy and paste the name that I provide for them".

But in Dublin, he was recently provided with a nameplate that said Aodhan O'Riordain.

"The one country that I have a difficulty with the spelling of my name, including the fadas, is Ireland. And I find that deeply, deeply infuriating.

"The corporate sector, state agencies, and that should be an awful lot more receptive to people being able to use a proper form of their name."

He thinks the island has traditionally "had a difficult relationship with the Irish language".

Academic Caoimhín de Barra agrees.

The historian and author said that when Ireland was set up as an independent state in 1922, "its raison d'être was that Ireland was different - different language different culture, different state".

Irish was once spoken right across the island but by the 19th Century had become the minority language, superseded by English.

That process was a long one kicked off by the Anglo-Norman invasion almost 900 years ago and featured a number of events and factors - plantation, economic upheaval, the Famine - that fill many a history module syllabus.

But when it came to reviving the language, de Barra argues that the fledgling state did not do enough.

"They set it up in schools and didn't do much more than that but language shift is more complicated.

"The Irish state assumed that the people would revive the language, the Irish people assumed that the government would revive the language - and nobody revived the language."

This translates to the fadas-on-forms issue, he said, as an "indifference" that has often been "the position of the government".

Now, he added: "We are part of the English-speaking world whether we like it or not, and all the kind of indifference and sometimes hostility to foreign languages comes out so if there's an accent it just gets left off."

That "indifference" has perhaps manifested itself most in recent years with two of Ireland's flagship companies - Bank of Ireland and national airline Aer Lingus - both in a situation where their IT systems cannot process fadas.

Last month, campaigners blasted Aer Lingus as "ludicrous" and "insulting" for the issue.

So what actually happens when you try to book an Aer Lingus flight with a fada in your name? Computer says no?

Well, actually, computer says: "Name may only contain letters, spaces, apostrophes, and hyphens."

In a statement, Aer Lingus apologised to customers and said its booking technology was developed in the 1960s but it is "considering implementing reasonable steps to address this issue... as part of future systems development".

BBC News NI checked other airlines' booking websites including British Airways and KLM and found it was possible to book with a name including a fada.

Another politician said more people will be facing this problem in future.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Sinn Féin's spokesperson for the Irish language, said that as interest in the ancestral tongue grows, more people are "changing their name back" from English to Irish.

"It's unique to yourself, your name, in many cases and the state should recognise that, and especially when it's so easy to do that in this day and age," he said.

So what can be done about it?

A recent law change means Irish public bodies now have to record names and addresses in full including fadas.

Ó Snodaigh would like it to go further - he wants private companies to be covered too, and has proposed a bill in the Dáil (Irish parliament) to protect accuracy in the use of Irish names and addresses.

He told BBC News NI that it would allow people to go to an ombudsman and complain if public bodies do not facilitate the use of the fada in their name.

The proposed bill would take effect from 1 January 2030, giving companies time to change their computer systems.

Ó Snodaigh said there had been "a reluctance" in the past "for some state bodies to be champions of the Irish language" and there is "still a reluctance by some".

And Ó Ríordáin wants to encourage people to speak up.

"I think people with Irish names or a fada over a letter in their name shouldn't be ashamed to say that 'actually you've misspelt my name there'. It's something I'm getting a little bit better at."

Even in Northern Ireland, where Irish has only been an official language for a few years, pupils of all ages are getting interested in learning.

Figures from the Department of Education in Northern Ireland show there has been a rise of almost 400% over the past 25 years in the number of pupils in Irish-language education.

And while most people trying their hand at learning will be native English speakers, teacher Alexandra Galbraith they should not be put off by the fadas.

The fada is "an incredibly important part of the language syntax as a whole", she said, but it is still "a completely approachable language".

"The biggest mistake I've seen people make is assuming they'll pick it up as easily as they would another Latin-based language, and becoming frustrated with themselves when they aren't as far along as they'd like to be," Galbraith said.

"Growing up people would've asked me what I was going to do with a 'dying language' but I think it's clear perceptions of the language have changed.

"It seems trendy at the minute to learn or speak Irish.

"It's a joy and a privilege to be able to teach it to those who maybe have never had the opportunity to learn before."