So I’m riding home on the NY subway and there are poster ads for a hard cider, Magnalls, which includes a picture of the bottle, on the neck of which is an oval logo which repeats the name “Magnalls” and some other crap in the ring and in the middle of the oval is the image of a barrel.
The ad copy says “Like many Irish immigrants that came to America, we had to change our name”.
From?
Why?
“Had to”? When they came to America?
Make no mistake, the British did their level best to exterminate the Irish language (and were pretty successful), and Anglicized the names of just about everything in Ireland. But Irishmen who came to America were under no pressure to change their names.
Jews, Slavs, Italians… loads of later immigrants who were perceived as more foreign, those who spoke different languages… THEY felt pressure to Anglicize their names when they came to America (Hence all the “Steinbergs” who became “Stones”). But not Irish-Americans.
The original name was “Dicken’s Cider.”
Thanks, Joe. Now why the hell did they find it necessary to change the name from Dickens to Magnall’s? And the ad copy doesn’t even say “You know that great Irish cider, Dickens? Well you can buy it now in America under the name Magnalls” so if you had heard of it by its old name you’d still have no idea (as I didn’t).
I had figured it had a name like Coors or O’Douls or something where it would be pretty obvious why they couldn’t sell it here under that name, but what the dickens is wrong with Dickens?
Picture the following:
‘What does your wife drink?’
‘Well, she likes a nice Dicken’s Cider’
‘Yeah, but during the winter, would she not prefer a hot whiskey?’
‘Nope, she heats it up beacuse if there’s one thing she likes more than a Dicken’s Cider its a hot Dicken’s Cider’
‘Isn’t that a hard cider’
‘That’s right, she really goes for a hard hot Dicken’s Cider’
Nice one Joe Malik.
And another thing, there were a lot of Irish immigrants who were native Irish speakers, and a lot of Irish names did get ‘Americanised’ as they immigrated, usually on Ellis Island. Illiterate non-native english speakers tend to have difficulty with filling in forms (a neccessity for entry), and many immigration officers had as much difficulty with Irish names as any Englishman.
As for “Magnall’s Cider”, I’d say it’s as Irish as cricket. The name itself could be Irish, but it’s a new one on me. I’m no genealogist though.
:::auto-woosh:::
:o
shoulda read it out loud…
Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but by checking the Dicken’s Cider Homepage, it appears it was imported all the way from… Florida? That’s the only address I can find (try the “Who Will Be the Dicken’s Cider Girl” link…)
It’s “Magner’s”, not “Magnall’s,” FYI.
And they seem to be intentionally hinting at the double entendre throughout 
`And it looks like they’re in the T-shirt business, anyway.
Lots of Apple Orchards for cider in Florida, ya know.
Maybe papaya cider?
I found it (amazing what having the correct word will do for a search engine)–it’s [url=“http://www.bulmers.ie/latestnews.htm”]Bulmers.
Still don’t understand why they “had to” change their name. Looks like a non-imperative marketing decision to me. I’ll never understand marketing people…