Watch Your Language Blog

Ireland's most notorious driver: a little plastic card

A startling (and language-related!) discovery in Ireland, from BBC News: believe it or not, a serial traffic offender, wanted by the Irish police, turned out to simply be a language misunderstanding. And yes, this story is pretty hilarious.

It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award.

... "Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.

"Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.

"It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."

Or perhaps Prawo Jazdy is Ireland's Keyser Söze? His greatest trick is convincing the world he doesn't exist...

And like that, he's gone.

(SHAINA)

Tags: Ireland, Polish
February 20, 2009