Frank McNally est un journaliste travaillant pour le journal irlandais the Irish Times, pour lequel il a rédigé des articles sur des sujets aussi divers que la politique, le sport et la littérature.
Dans certains de ses articles et dans le livre qu'il a publié pour la collection "the Xenophobe's Guide to...", il traite avec humour et l'exagération propre aux Irlandais de l'histoire, la culture et le mode de vie de l'Irlande et de ses habitants.
One initiative was to ban English translations from road signs and place-names in the Gaeltacht. Signs are bilingual elsewhere in the Republic, and critics claimed that Irish-only signs would confuse tourists. Against this it could be argued that, language apart, the Gaeltacht signs follow the same principles as road signs everywhere else. So it won't matter that tourists don't understand them, because they're probably lost already.
Ireland is officially bilingual, with both Irish and English recognised by the Constitution. In fact Irish is exalted as the first official language, English only second. This is not reflected in actual practice, however.