Why is the Irish PM called the Taoiseach but Merkel isn’t called the Bundeskanzler?

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I am talking about the usage of the term in English language. The term Taoiseach is even defined in the Irish constitution as “the Prime Minister”, according to Wikipedia. So I wonder if there’s a historic reason the term is left untranslated in English language, unlike terms for equivalent offices in other countries.

In: Culture

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The UK colonized Ireland for a long time and at points suppressed and prosecuted people for being too Irish and that included trying to wipe out The Irish language.

In the 1920s Ireland drove the British out of most of the island and established the Republic of Ireland.

One of the things they’ve done since then is to introduce Irish language terms back into official functions to assert their identity as Irish. That’s why the police are also called Garda and the Post Office is An Post. Taoiseach is part of that.

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