Talk:Thomas Sheridan

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There was a completely undiscussed move of Thomas Sheridan to Thomas Sheridan (actor) so that he would cease to be the primary meaning. To reverse this we now need to delete this page. PatGallacher (talk) 14:13, 9 January 2011 (UTC)

• A redirect to the disambiguation page seems reasonable for this title as there are multiple Thomas Sheridans and no clear primary topic. For example, see The Oxford companion to Irish literature which has parallel entries for Thomas Sheridan (the elder) and Thomas Sheridan (the younger). I have removed the {{db-move}} tag as we need more talk on this before further action. Note also that an earlier stub for Thomas Sheridan (actor) was recently deleted as CSD A10 which has occasioned discussion elsewhere. Colonel Warden (talk) 13:35, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

If we don't have a primary meaning then the disambiguation page should be moved here. However the actor does still look like the primary meaning, the move should not have been made without discussion. Any comments? PatGallacher (talk) 21:38, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

• I support the move of the actor, because does he does not appear to me to meet WP:PRIMARYTOPIC; if an editor disagrees, they may of course open a WP:RM discussion.
  In the meantime, I have moved the dab page to the primary position, because there is no point in having a redirect to the dab page. It can of course be moved back if there is consensus that there is a PRIMARYTOPIC. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:31, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't have an opinion on the PRIMARYTOPIC matter, but I object to labelling Thomas Sheridan as an actor. His notability is NOT for acting:

(1) He permanently quit acting when aged in his late thirties and wrote a handful of books about British education, and especially about standardising the English language, and it is these books that are his primary claim to fame today. They have nothing to do with acting.

(2) When working as an actor in his twenties and thirties, he was also (a) a theatre manager, and (b) a theatre play director, and (c) he wrote at least one play himself.

Therefore labeling him "Thomas Sheridan (actor)" is unacceptable. I suggest "Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788)" or "Thomas Sheridan, educator" or "Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788), educator". Another point is that on the disambig page he should be labelled as Anglo-Irish, and not Irish.

Seanwal111111 (talk) 01:41, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

Seanwal111111, your comments would be better made on the talk page of the article concerned. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 01:44, 11 January 2011 (UTC)

I still think it would have been better to have discussed this move properly. However on second thoughts I have come round to the view that, even allowing for recentism, and even though he is usually known as Tommy rather than Thomas (except, ahem, when he's in the dock) the Scottish politician has recently risen in notability to such an extent that there is no primary meaning. Also the divine and the engineer may not be all that far behind the actor. PatGallacher (talk) 23:58, 10 January 2011 (UTC)