Michæl McFarland Campbell

For the last few weeks, travelling between Monasterevin and Port Laoise, I have noticed new signage at the lifts at stations on the Iarnród Éireann network. Helpfully this signage has large clear icons next to the instructions to aid understanding. The instructions are shown both as Gaeilge and in English. There is an additional line of Braille under the instructions to improve accessibility. All of this is much better than the previous signage. However, I have spotted a couple of issues with what is displayed, and have highlighted these to Iarnród Éireann.

First of all, the second and third of the large clear icons seem to be in the wrong places. The second instruction,

Brúitear an cnaipe / Press button

has a speaking telephone indicated next to it.

The third instruction,

Labhair leis an oibreoir / Speak to operator

has a Press button icon next to it.

It seems to me that no one checked the signs before they were printed. Since they are on all the updated and improved lifts on the network, it seems a significant waste of money to have allowed them to go to press without checking that they were correct.

Secondly, while it is fantastic to see Braille appearing on signage to improve accessibility for those with sight difficulties, it is disappointing to see that the Braille is up only in English. Ireland is a bilingual country. We have a national language, Irish, and a second official language, English. (Article 8, Bunreacht na hÉireann). Since 2014, there has been an Updated Irish Braille standard, approved by the Irish National Braille and Alternative Format Association. I accept that there may be accessibility issues in having Braille up in more than one language, but surely there is some way of managing this? Given we have both the Irish and the English in the latin characters on the signage, can we not have both Irish and English Braille as well?

I have raised both these issues via Twitter:

I will report back if there is any major response from Iarnród Éireann.

A sound from my past

As an aside, I have fond memories of waking up at my grandparents’ house in Cornwall to the sound of the Perkins Brailler being used by my grandfather. He used to help the RNIB by Brailling books for them. It was a very comforting sound throughout my teenage years when staying there.

Today, is World Drowning Prevention Day, and so I wrote a post for the Facebook page of St John Ambulance Ireland to raise awareness. I used information from the WHO, and Water Safety Ireland to give some facts and figures, together with an image from Pexels.com and Adobe Spark to create the image for the post.

https://www.facebook.com/stjohn.ie/posts/4316382638382520

Due to recent changes in marriage registration in England, the Church of England’s clergy will no longer issue the legal marriage certificate following a wedding at which they officiate. That will be done by the civil authorities. However, many clergy will want to give the couple a certificate from the church as well. Over on Twitter, a design from the CofE was shared and it was suggested that it was not great. I have designed a couple of alternatives.

Any cleric of the Church of England who wants to use these designs is welcome to do so. Please contact me on Twitter to arrange.

It is most unfortunate that Carrolls Irish Gifts are advertising a version of the Irish National Flag with the Proclamation of the Republic in 1916 emblazoned upon it. The guidance on the National Flag from the Government of Ireland is very clear.

The National Flag should never be defaced by placing slogans, logos, lettering or pictures of any kind on it, for example at sporting events,
§13, The National Flag accessed 2020-09-12 at https://assets.gov.ie/2949/151118153516-096a94ba6955435cae965414f7667104.pdf

§13, The National Flag

We were reminded yesterday that September is the month of Our Lady of Sorrows by Fr Sam.

In response, here is, newly typeset, The Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Particularly during the Covid-19 situation, Christians may find that they want to pray for the hospitals and infirmaries of our land. In the Church of Ireland’s Book of Common Prayer, there is a beautiful prayer to cover this.

God of compassion,
whose Son Jesus Christ, the son of Mary,
shared the life of a home in Nazareth,
and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself;
Strengthen us in our daily living
that in joy and in sorrow
we may know the power of your presence
to bind together and to heal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect of Mothering Sunday, Book of Common Prayer, 2004.

Featured image

The featured image is one I designed for my parish’s Facebook presence and have used it myself. Should anyone want anything similar designed, please get in touch.

I have been volunteering by looking after the local parish Facebook page in recent months. Every now and then we need an image for the next post.

Today is Ash Wednesday so here is the one I created for our Instagram as well as the one for Facebook. Each platform has a slightly different format. But I try to ensure we have similar content.