Generally I'm a big fan of simplified phonetic spellings, and I find these entirely confusing. There are historic reasons though, and these are not easily fought. From the article:
Another reason is that "there were different stages of spelling normalization in the Irish language. In the 1950s, they decided to modernize the alphabet." That's when a lot of simplified, anglicized spellings took off.
Finally, Ireland is an English-speaking country where only a small minority claims to speak its native language "very well." So, says O Seghdha, "Another part of it is, yeah, people just having a go."
Eh, I'm not about to go around telling people how to spell their names, especially not today. As long as they take with my befuddlement and occasional mispronunciations in stride, I'll accept their corrections gracefully, and we're all OK.
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