An Irish government website marking the centenary of the 1916 Rising has left language lovers speechless.

The site marking 100 years since the Easter Rising carried text in the Irish language straight out of Google Translate.

Native speakers called the results “nonsensical”.

Several excerpts contained basic mistakes in the translation from English into Irish.

A spokesperson for the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht confirmed that Google Translate had been used.

The spokesperson said the mistake happened because the government department sent the English text to an external company that was contracted to design the website.

That company used Google Translate to get a draft, or holding version of the Irish text to appear on the page to see how much space it would require, thus enabling the company to design around it.

It should have been replaced by the official Irish translation that was later supplied by the department, the spokesperson said. More.

See: BBC

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