An Irish language mishap at Tesco has gone viral, but is there any need to be offended?

The aisle signage at Tesco in Headford, Galway, went viral after a shopper tweeted about it yesterday.

Upon seeing that the sign for Domestic Appliances was translated as ‘Díbholaígh do Mhná’, Éidín Ní Shé tweeted:

Hello @TescoIrl on the eve of #NollaignamBan note that domestic appliances does not translate in Irish to “appliances for women” please amend.  

The Irish translation at Tesco Headford has caused a stir.

The tweet has racked up thousands of likes and retweets, with others expressing similar frustration towards Tesco at the Irish translation.

Many others, however, have noted that the signage isn’t quite as sinister as it may seem.

For those whose knowledge of Gaeilge doesn’t extend far beyond the cúpla  focal (like myself), Díbholaígh do Mhná actually translates as Deodorant for Women, not Appliances for Women. This would indicate that the sign is a simple translation mistake, rather than a call to reserve all domestic appliances for women exclusively.

Some Twitter users have called for the tweet to be taken down, as people are still wrongly calling out Tesco for sexism.

User @selkies_ wrote “This is a printing mistake on the signs not a call for female domestic servitude from Tesco lads come on”.

Meanwhile @soulaemmanuel said: “Díbholaígh do mhná” is women’s deodorant. Think this is just an error rather than anything more sinister”.

Why is no one actually looking up what díbholaígh do mhná means before they tweet https://t.co/QnuwYvalGc

— Louise🪆 (@Selkies_) January 5, 2023

A Tesco spokesperson told Lovin:

At Tesco, we’re very proud of our dual language signage. We’re sorry for the error on the sign in our Headford store but we appreciate it being pointed out to us. The sign has been removed and will be corrected shortly.

Header image via Shutterstock

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