In the Republic, the custom was reverting certain English “new” town names back to their traditional ones, especially when the names were completely different.
- Kingstown: Dún Laoghaire (pronounced “Dunleary”)
- Queenstown: Cobh (pronounced “Cove”)
- King’s County: County Offaly
- Queen’s County: County Laois (pronounced “Leash”)
But some town names still hang on afterwards, e.g.:
- Bagenalstown ↔ Muine Bheag
- Edgeworthstown ↔ Mostrim (the latter being Anglicized from “Meathas Troim”)
And in the major cities, certain street names got changed, e.g. O’Connell Street in Dublin from Sackville Street, Parnell Street from Great Britain Street, etc., and I did not get the connection between doing that in Dublin and doing that in New York City (e.g. Lenox Avenue into Malcolm X Boulevard of all things) until I started reading about the communists in the Irish Republican Brotherhood.