{"id":99545,"date":"2025-10-02T17:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99545\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T17:53:12","slug":"met-eireann-raised-concerns-that-storm-names-might-be-shared-with-presidential-candidates-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/99545\/","title":{"rendered":"Met \u00c9ireann raised concerns that storm names might be shared with presidential candidates \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Met \u00c9ireann<\/a> said they needed to be sure that none of this year\u2019s storms shared a name with any of the candidates for the forthcoming presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In discussions over the list for 2025 and 2026, the Irish meteorological service said they were not yet sure who was running for the presidency<\/a>, but wanted to alert colleagues in the U.K. and the Netherlands it was happening.<\/p>\n

An email to them said: \u201cWe certainly couldn\u2019t have a live storm with the name of a candidate during the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

UK forecasters were also worried about using the Irish name \u2018F\u00edadh\u2019 for a storm this season because they thought it sounded a little bit too much like \u2018fear\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, in discussions, Met \u00c9ireann reassured them of its far less sinister pronunciation by sending an audio recording of how it actually sounds when spoken.<\/p>\n

An email said the Irish meteorological service wanted to keep it in contention for this year\u2019s list.<\/p>\n

Met \u00c9ireann said it had some \u201cnice stories behind it\u201d and was the only Irish-language name on this year\u2019s list.<\/p>\n

F\u00edadh had been put forward as part of a Met \u00c9ireann initiative to get the public to help choose storm names for this year.<\/p>\n

An internal list said: \u201cF\u00edadh is an Irish girl\u2019s name meaning wild or untamed. The name\u2019s connection to nature and the wild symbolises the untamed aspects of the individual, their tenacity, and their willingness to push boundaries.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"UKUK forecasters were worried about using the Irish name \u2018F\u00edadh\u2019 for a storm. Photograph: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Storm Amy could damage power lines and topple trees in some western countiesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, staff in Met \u00c9ireann flagged it early as a potential issue for colleagues in the UK and Netherlands saying it might prove tricky.<\/p>\n

TV forecaster Gerry Murphy wrote to colleagues saying: \u201cI think the names that are being suggested are good. \u201cThe only one I would be a bit concerned with is F\u00edadh. It is a lovely name, but it might be one of those Irish names that people in Britain might pronounce incorrectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, F\u00edadh did not make the twenty-one-strong list, and was replaced instead with Fionnuala, which was on an alternate list from Met \u00c9ireann.<\/p>\n

Seven of the twenty-one names were chosen by Ireland following a social media campaign from Met \u00c9ireann to submit names for the 2025 and 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The first of them \u2013 Storm Amy<\/a> \u2013 is already on its way with weather warnings issued of high winds and heavy rain.<\/p>\n

Other records from Met \u00c9ireann detail the inspiration behind some of the names that were put forward from the Irish side. The name Gerard, which was selected, was put forward by friends and family of a man battling cancer<\/a> because of his \u201cfascination for extreme weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bram was also chosen in honour of Bram Stoker<\/a>, the author of Dracula, \u201cwhose world is of the night with the howl of the wolves mirroring the sounds of a storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Storm season is upon us and Amy is first up. Here\u2019s why the naming scheme is so effectiveOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Met \u00c9ireann said they needed to be sure that none of this year\u2019s storms shared a name with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5602,5,59,7,8,1102,5767,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-99545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-met-eireann","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-presidential-election","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-weather-events","23":"tag-weather-ireland","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}