By Joe McCann
CLOUGHEY, Cloghy or Cloughy? If you live in or near the small village on the Ards peninsula you have no doubt been asked this question.
And driving along the peninsula won’t ease your confusion as all three spellings are to be found in official road signs pointing motorists in the direction of the village.
Now in a bid to solve the village’s identity crisis once and for all, Strangford MLA Kellie Armstrong has asked the Infrastructure Minister, Liz Kimmins, to settle the matter once and for all and standardise the road signs.
Throughout County Down and amongst locals, consensus seems to sit with ‘Cloughey’ as the correct spelling but this is not always apparent on the road signs, which also show ‘Cloghy’ and ‘Cloughy’. The village’s name is said to derive from the Irish name ‘Clochaigh’ which means ‘stony place’.
Ms Armstrong said she has now written to Minister Kimmins to ask for the road signs in the area to include the correct spelling for the village – Cloughey.
“As a local, like many others, it’s a bugbear that signs are not spelled correctly,” said Ms Armstrong.
“On November 16 I put up a Facebook post asking locals if they agreed there should be one spelling of the village name and that it should be Cloughey. The overwhelming response was Cloughey.
“It’s important to have the right spelling: to ensure the correct and historical name of the village is used, to help to ensure deliveries go to the right address and to stop annoying locals.
“It’s not Cloghy or Cloughy, it’s Cloughey.”
However, the Department for Infrastructure isn’t in any hurry to resolve the problem. Mrs Kimmins said that while the Department is aware of the issue, due to budget constraints the signs would not be replaced until they either become damaged or need to be replaced.
“My department has been operating in a difficult financial environment for a number of years due to underfunding and austerity by the British Government and limited budget resources mean we must prioritise our interventions to those locations deemed most in need,” she said.
“For this reason, the spelling will be amended as and when signage comes to the end of its natural life and is in need of replacement.”
