diff --git a/lib/util.php b/lib/util.php
index 9b299cb14f..38147e998b 100644
--- a/lib/util.php
+++ b/lib/util.php
@@ -51,13 +51,24 @@ function common_init_locale($language=null)
 function common_init_language()
 {
     mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8');
+
+    // gettext seems very picky... We first need to setlocale()
+    // to a locale which _does_ exist on the system, and _then_
+    // we can set in another locale that may not be set up
+    // (say, ga_ES for Galego/Galician) it seems to take it.
+    common_init_locale("en_US");
+    
     $language = common_language();
-    // So we don't have to make people install the gettext locales
     $locale_set = common_init_locale($language);
-    bindtextdomain("statusnet", common_config('site','locale_path'));
+    setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'C');
+    
+    // So we don't have to make people install the gettext locales
+    $path = common_config('site','locale_path');
+    common_log(LOG_INFO, "binding text domain: $path");
+    bindtextdomain("statusnet", $path);
     bind_textdomain_codeset("statusnet", "UTF-8");
     textdomain("statusnet");
-    setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'C');
+
     if(!$locale_set) {
         common_log(LOG_INFO, 'Language requested:' . $language . ' - locale could not be set. Perhaps that system locale is not installed.', __FILE__);
     }