The Effin' village that's too rude for Facebook

It's no bleedin' good if you're from a village called Effin and you want to register your flippin' birthplace on Facebook, it turns out.

A woman from the Irish parish of Effin has launched an online campaign to have it recognised by the social networking website, claiming she was told she could not list it on her profile because it was an offensive term.

Ann Marie Kennedy, who was born in the County Limerick village but now lives in Banogue, said she had attempted to alert Facebook to her "pet peeve" many times, but she had received no reply.

There are many people on Facebook who have listed "Effin" as one of their names, and there are also plenty of groups with the word in their title. However, Ms Kennedy said that when she tried to create a group called "Please get my hometown Effin recognised", that was also rejected.

"It came back with an error message saying 'offensive'," she said."I would like to be able to put Effin on my profile page and so would many other Effin people around the world to proudly say that they are from Effin, County Limerick, but it won't recognise that.

"It keeps coming up as Effingham, Illinois; Effingham, New Hampshire; and it gives suggestions of other places. It will recognise Limerick but I'm not from Limerick City, I'm from Effin. I'm a proud Effin woman. And I always will be an Effin woman."

The village has a population of around 1,000, whom Ms Kennedy is trying to mobilise in her cause.