place names

place names. The vast majority of Irish place names are Gaelic in origin. The names of rivers are mostly feminine since they contain the names of the tutelary deities, e.g. Bóinn (Boyne)<[*]bowinda, ‘cow‐white goddess’, Banna (Bann)<[*]bandewa, ‘goddess’. Among the other important elemets that refer to natural features one should mention: loch, ‘lake’ (e.g. Loch nEachach, ‘Lough Neagh’), sliabh, ‘mountain’ (e.g. Sliabh Bladhma, ‘Slieve Bloom’), Inis, ‘island, low‐lying country’ (e.g. Inis Toirc, ‘Inishturk’; Inis, ‘Ennis’), doire, ‘oak wood’ (Doire Buí, ‘Derryboy’), áth, ‘ford’ (e.g. Áth I, ‘Athy’), and maigh, ‘plain’ (e.g. Maigh Cuilinn, ‘Moycullen’). The commonest elements in settlement names are dún, ‘fort’ (e.g. Dún na nGall, ‘Donegal’), cill, ‘church’ (e.g. Cill Dara, ‘Kildare’), and baile, ‘dwelling, town’ (e.g. Baile Móta, ‘Ballymote’). ‘Bally’ is not infrequently also the Anglicization of béal átha, ‘the mouth of, dry land near a ford’ (e.g. Béal Átha na Sluaighe, ‘Ballinasloe’).

Viking settlers introduced Norse names to the south and east coasts, e.g. Howth<Old Norse hofuð, ‘head’, Waterford<‘weather fjord’. The second syllable in ‘Leinster’, ‘Munster’, and ‘Ulster’ is probably the Norse genitival ‐s‐ followed by Irish tír, ‘land’. The absence of ‐ster from the name Connaught/Connacht is indicative of the dearth of Viking settlement in the western province. The name Dublin<duibhlinn (‘black pool’) is Gaelic but was used by the Norsemen for the town they built between the pool on the Poddle river and the Liffey. Baile Átha Cliath (‘the ford of the town of the wattles’) was the older Gaelic settlement to the west of Duibhlinn at a point where the Liffey could be forded over wooden hurdles on the river bed.

The Anglo‐Normans introduced English toponyms, many of which contained the element ‐town(e) (e.g. Cheeverstown, Mitchelstown). Some of these names were Gaelicized during the Gaelic recovery of the 14th and 15th centuries (e.g. Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, ‘Ballyferriter’). Although the Norse must have been largely Gaelicized by the 12th century, the invaders from Britain were familiar with the Norse names of the south and east coasts and continued to use them, rather than the Irish names which would have been in current use in Ireland.

The Anglo‐Normans introduced the system of counties and divided counties into baronies. Since the baronies often corresponded to the area of the earlier Irish tuath or people, the baronies not infrequently continue ancient population names e.g. Corcomroe<Corca Mrua, Decies< Déisi, etc.

Plantation in the 16th and 17th centuries introduced a new wave of English names, for example Maryborough (Co. Laois), Philipstown (Co. Offaly), and Virginia (Co. Cavan), named for Mary Tudor, Philip II of Spain, and Elizabeth I of England respectively. The planters of Ulster often replaced Gaelic names with unrelated English ones, e.g. Cookstown for an Chorr Chríochach, Draperstown for Baile na Scríne. London was added to the English name Derry (<Irish Doire) in honour of the London companies that colonized the city. The form Londan‐Doire is attested in Irish poetry.

The Anglicization of Irish place names had begun with the Anglo‐Norman invasion. Names were either respelt, e.g. Sligeach>Sligo, or translated, e.g. Baile Coimín>Blessington (as though from comaoin, ‘gratitude’). Some English forms are hybrids, e.g. Cloch na Rón (‘stone of the seals’)>Roundstone. The English versions of Irish place names were standardized by the Ordnance Survey of 1824–46. Later place names are of assorted origin. Portobello and Rialto in Dublin are Italian borrowings. Ranelagh is in imitation of the Ranelagh Gardens in London, sited on land originally owned by Lord Ranelagh (see Jones, Richard), who took his title from Ranelagh in County Wicklow. Bangor in Mayo is borrowed either from Bangor in Co. Down or from Bangor in north Wales.

On Irish independence an attempt was made to divest all toponyms in the state of their imperial connotations. In many cases the results were unobjectionable. Kingstown and Queen's County, for example, became Dún Laoghaire (pronounced Dunleary) and Co. Laois/Leix respectively. Some other changes were less happy. Charleville, Co. Cork, was given the unhistorical name Ráth Loirc, and King's County was renamed Offaly. Since Offaly is the name of two baronies in Co. Kildare the new name was unjustified.

Nicholas Williams

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