Siobhán Murphy, the manageress of The Kerryman newspaper, said this morning that the paper would not change its name to something more gender-neutral. Speaking on RTE radio, Murphy said the brand is a well recognised one and would be destroyed if it was changed.
Ireland’s Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion, Josepha Madigan (pictured), recently called for an end to gendered titles and language, such as “spokesman” and “chairman.”
Appearing on the same show as Murphy, Madigan said that The Kerryman is a “great independent newspaper.” She went on to say that while it is not up to her to tell media what to do, we should interrogate the words we use in our daily lives and see if they create an unconscious bias. 
Siobahán Murphy countered that by saying that The Kerryman has been around since 1904 and is well recognised locally, nationally and internationally. She said, “if something is working and does what it needs to do” it should not be changed.”
Madigan said that if it’s good enough for Kleenex, it should be good enough for The Kerryman. Kleenex has committed to changing its man-sized tissue product to instead read extra-large tissues.
Will women get more out of using a Kleenex after the wording “man-size” is removed? Will it feel different? Will they feel more included? Fecked if I know.
Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae gets the last word. Speaking to RTE he said;
“Where are we going to stop with this political correctness and nonsense?” Mr Healy-Rae asked. He also questioned if “manholes need to be called a personhole” and how far language will need to be changed to be gender-neutral.
He said the debate around gender-neutral language would mean every word would need to be examined to make sure that “we are not insulting anybody.”
