Last month’s Monthly Morsel focused on placename elements and their possible use, along with other tools, in assisting planners to predict sites that may be, or have historically been, liable to flood. As an adjunct to this it is also particularly noteworthy that placenames, when the underlying Irish form has been correctly determined, might sometimes be of enormous value to those engaged in rewetting as a method of nature restoration and/or as flood alleviation.
For example, the townland names Lagore Big (logainm.ie #37986) and Lagore Little (logainm.ie #37987) next to Dunshaughlin in County Meath appear innocuous at first sight, particularly since they appear in Irish as the essentially near meaningless ‘Lagór mór’ and ‘Lagór beag’ in the Ordnance Survey Name Book, which indicates that the last local Irish speakers of the area understood no connection with the word loch “lake” in that placename. However, loch is exactly what is reflected in early anglicised historical forms of the name such as ‘Laghgower’ (1415) and ‘loghgowre’ (1481), a fact confirmed by the many early Irish attestations of this name such as ‘Loch Gabhor’ ‘lake of (the white) horses’ (e.g. Annals of Ulster s.a. 785) or ‘Loch Gabhair’ ‘lake of (the white) horse’ (Annals of the Four Masters, compiled 17th century), or similar — whence today’s standardized Irish form Loch Gabhar, which has been in official use since the 1980s Notably, the earlier presence of a lake situated both in Lagore Big and Lagore Little is confirmed by soil maps which show a significant area of lacustrine soil (lake-bed) to the east of Dunshaughlin. In addition, a second reasonably large area of lacustrine soil, which must represent the site of a second lake, is found in the southeastern corner of Lagore Big (see soil maps below)..

(Subsoil map at Lagore Big and Lagore Little, County Meath. Area of lacustrine soil marked with + https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/)

(Subsoil map at Lagore Big and Lagore Little, County Meath. Second area of lacustrine soil marked with +: https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/)

Both of these zones of lake-bed soil drain into the Broadmeadow River which is particularly notable given the acknowledged danger of flooding from this river downstream in nearby Ratoath (see Meath County Development Plan 2021ج2026). (Interestingly, the original Irish name of the Broadmeadow River, may be Abhainn Ghabhra ‘river of (the white) horse’, which, if correct, would be clearly linked to that of Loch Gabhar ‘lake of (the white) horses’, in turn suggesting a symbiotic relationship between both features.) Therefore, given that both of these large areas of lacustrine soil drain into the Broadmeadow River, it seems probable, even to the lay person with no expertise in hydraulic geography or engineering, that flooding caused by the river at Ratoath could be alleviated, should the area of Loch Gabhar, from which the Broadmeadow River flows, be rewetted and used as a retention lake during periods of excessive rainfall. Certainly, both the original Irish name and soil maps of the area suggest the cost-effective appropriateness of such an approach. The only hindrance to this suggestion, should landowners be prepared to sell their holdings or part thereof, is that a small part of the area in question has been encroached on by a recent housing development in Dunshaughlin. In this instance, the planners may not have recognised the red flags raised by both the placename and soil maps, or if so, perhaps they felt that building on lake-bed soil did not pose an insurmountable problem of flooding.

The example of Lagore / Loch Gabhar ‘lake of (the white) horses’ is just one of many that suggest the potential of Irish names of places to be used to earmark areas that might be suitable for rewetting with the least amount of expense to the country’s citizens, i.e. the placename itself combined with information from soil maps could be used to determine earlier wetlands with a potential to be restored without the need for expensive engineering works, given that they were originally wetlands in their natural state. With this in mind, it may be of interest to know that even Irish placenames only found in literary creations may also sometimes highlight areas liable to flooding or suitable for rewetting. For example, in a recent article on the placenames Screggan / An Screagán ‘the rough, rocky, stony ground’ and Lynally / Lainn Eala ‘church of (the) swan’ near Tullamore in County Offaly (see logainm.ie Featured Theme 124), it was noted that the final element of Lainn Eala is from the name of the founding saint of the parish church, namely Colmán Eala. The Life of Colmán Eala tells us that the saint reputedly derived his epithet, Eala, from Loch Eala ‘lake of (the) swan’, supposedly an enchanted lake then situated next to the site of his new foundation at Lynally. It was written that neither man nor animal would dare approach Loch Eala because it was guarded by a wicked beast (pēist urc[h]ōidech), but after Colmán summoned the aid of various famous saints and clerics the beast was decapitated and its remains buried in the newly consecrated graveyard. (For further references to this place in Irish sources see E-Onomasticon s.n. lann elo.) As often happens with early Irish literature, we are left wondering whether Loch Eala was a real place or whether it was merely a literary creation of the type which placename researchers often refer to as a ghost name. (We also use this term to refer to errors and other false names which appear on maps or in other historical sources, much to the confusion of researchers.)With this in mind, a sceptic might surely look at the present-day townland of Lynally Glebe / Lainn Eala (#42263) – where there is no lake – and with some justification consider Loch Eala to indeed be a literary fabrication.

(Subsoil map of Lynally Glebe and surrounding townlands, County Offaly. Extensive area of alluvial soil (floodplain) marked with +: https://gis.epa.ie/EPAMaps/)

However, scientific analysis reflected in the EPA soil map seen above shows that this townland contains an enormous area of alluvial soil stretching far into the surrounding townlands, between the modern courses of the Tullamore River, the Clodiagh River, and beyond. Indeed, the land just north of the ruins in Lynally are described as Flooded Bottoms on the Ordnance Survey 6ʺ map (first edition), while the alluvial soil here also, markedly, extends into part of the townland of Killiskea / Coill Uisce ‘wood of water’ (logainm.ie #42305). This area of alluvial soil, then, quite plausibly corresponds to the site of Loch Eala, but if so, the lake appears to have been gradually drained over many years. Be that as it may, the soil maps certainly confirm that there is an enormous floodplain here, and the placename Loch Eala suggests that the area in question must have remained under water for periods long enough to generate the element loch “lake” in the placename. Therefore, it seems that we can indeed sometimes use placenames only found in literary creations (they are not all ghost-names) in combination with soil maps in the determination of areas liable to flooding and possibly very well-suited to rewetting at the minimum of financial cost.

Overall, examples such as those described above and in last month’s Monthly Morsel suggest that an interdisciplinary approach between toponymists, planners, geographers and engineers may prove particularly useful in any future attempts at using natural features to alleviate flooding possibly be means of rewetting. At least there is surely food for thought in considering such an approach.

(For further reading concerning the use of placenames in the determination of flood histories see: ‘Early Medieval Place-Names and Riverine Flood Histories: A New Approach and New Chronostratigraphic Records for Three English Rivers’, p. 381-405, Pears, B., Brown, A.G., Carroll, J., Toms, Phillip, Wood, J.C. and Jones, R (2020): European Journal of Archaeology.)

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich \& Justin Ó Gliasáin)

Last week’s contribution concerning the theme of wells, springs and fountains in Irish placenames focused of the element tobar ‘well, fountain, spring, source’ and its occurrence in placenames that sometimes reflect the reputed curative properties of their waters, all the while barely mentioning other terms that can also refer to a ‘well’, ‘spring’ or ‘fountain’ such as tiobra, or its more commonly occurring variant tiobraid (a fossilised oblique form of tiobra) as in Tipperary / Tiobraid Árann ‘the well, spring, fountain, source of (at the) Ára (possibly an old name of the river flowing through Tipperary town (see Onomasticon DIAS s.n. ára))’, and fuarán as in Carrownaworan / Ceathrú na bhFuarán ‘the quarter (land) of the springs, fountains’ (logainm.ie #45715) in Co. Sligo.

While tiobra / tiobraid ‘well, spring, fountain, source’ cannot be considered at all rare in townland names, it is particularly noticeable that it rarely occurs in conjunction with a personal name, as is the case in Tibberaghny / Tiobra Fhachna ‘the well of Fachna (< Mid.Ir. Fachtna)’ (logainm.ie #26492) in Co. Kilkenny. This contrasts greatly with placenames containing tobar ‘well, fountain, spring, source’ of which there are many more examples with personal names, as in Toberphelim / Tobar Féilim ‘Féilim’s well’ (logainm.ie #32934) in Co. Longford; Toberjarleth / Tobar Iarlatha ‘Iarlaith’s well’ (logainm.ie # 21995) in Co. Galway and Toberrory / Tobar Ruairí ‘Ruairí’s well’ (logainm.ie #43913) in Co. Roscommon. Not to mention the ubiquity of townlands and wells called Toberbride / Tobar Bhríde (sometimes also Tobar Bríde, i.e. with a fossilised form of gen. Bríde without initial lenition) ‘St. Brigid’s well’ or Toberpatrick / Tobar Phádraig (sometimes also Tobar Pádraig) ‘St. Patrick’s well’. This implies that tobar was far more commonly used than tiobra / tiobraid, but it is worth noting that tiobraid was not at all uncommon as a qualifier, as seen in placenames such as Aughatubbrid or Chatsworth/ Achadh Tiobraide “field of (the) well, spring, fountain, source” (logainm.ie #26541) in Co. Kilkenny; Baile na Tiobraide ‘the town(land) of the well, spring’ is the forerunner to Ballintubbert (logainm.ie #28120) and Springhill (earlier ‘Balletibred’) (logainm.ie #28860) in Co. Laois, as well as Ballintubbrid (logainm.ie #31887) in Co. Limerick. We also have Kiltubbrid / Cill Tiobraide ‘church of (the) spring, fountain’ (logainm.ie #40330; #40825) in Co. Monaghan; Clontubbrid / Cluain Tiobraide ‘meadow, pasture of (the) spring, fountain’ in Cos. Mayo (logainm.ie #36824) and Kilkenny (logainm.ie #27473); Ballintubbrid / Baile na dTiobrad ‘the town(land) of the springs, fountains’ (logainm.ie #52227) in Co. Wexford; Lisnatubbrid / Lios na dTiobrad ‘the ringfort of the springs, fountains’ (logainm.ie #48375) in Co. Tipperary; Kiltubbrid/Cill Tiobrad ‘church of springs, fountains’ (logainm.ie #29335) in Co. Leitrim; while Cluain Tiobrad ‘meadow, pasture of springs, fountains’ is the forerunner to Clontibret (logainm.ie #1979) in Co. Monaghan, Cloontubbrid (logainm.ie #30033) in Co. Leitrim and Cloontubbrid in Cos. Mayo (logainm.ie #35972) and Kerry (logainm.ie #23901). The frequency of tiobraid in combination with cluain ‘meadow, pasture’ is particularly striking, and although the specific reason for this is unclear, it may be connected to the fact that while cluain is generally explained as meaning a “meadow, pasture” or similar (see FGB, Dinneen cluain; DIL clúain), Julius Pokorny (Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, I 1959 p. 603) traces the word back to Indo-European *klop-ni-, from the root *klep- meaning ‘feucht’ “damp” (cf. Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill, Logainmneacha na hÉireann III: Cluain i Logainmneacha Co. Thiobraid Árann, p. 19). This suggests that cluain originally referred to ‘wet’ pasture, and this was often likely caused by the present of springs therein, although a riverside location appears to be the most common feature of placenames with cluain.

Unlike either tobar or tiobraid, which commonly feature in the beginning of placenames (as the generic) and also as a qualifier as seen above, the word fuarán (< Old Irish úarán ‘spring, ‘a well spring or fountain’’) or any variant thereof, appears to occur as the generic element in initial position of placenames in barely any modern townland name. This observation might lead one to suggest that fuarán wasn’t particularly productive as a word in spoken Irish, but it does, in fact, occur relatively frequently as a qualifier in townland names, which largely undermines any presumption that it wasn’t commonly used in Irish. For example, we have Carrownaworan / Ceathrú na bhFuarán “the quarter (land measure) of the springs” (logainm.ie #45715) in Co. Sligo; Aghanoran / Achadh an Fhuaráin ‘the field of the spring’ (logainm.ie #33002) in Co. Longford; Carrickanoran / Carraig an Fhuaráin ‘the rock of the spring’ in Cos. Kilkenny (logainm.ie #27169) and Monaghan (logainm.ie #40895); Knockanoran / Cnoc an Fhuaráin ‘the hill of the spring’ in Cos. Wexford (logainm.ie #54079), Laois (logainm.ie # 27962) and Cork (logainm.ie #8924); along with Coolanoran / Cúil an Fhuaráin ‘the recess of the spring’ (logainm.ie #32158) in Co. Limerick. Additionally, Baile an Fhuaráin ‘the town(land) of the spring’ is the forerunner to Ballynoran, as found in Cos. Tipperary (logainm.ie #47427) and Cork (logainm.ie #12063), as well as Ballinoran (logainm.ie #31077) in Co. Limerick. In regard to the etymology of fuarán which goes back to Old Irish úarán (dil.ie s.v.), it is generally understood by linguists to be connected to the forerunner of Old Irish úar ‘cold’ (see J. Vendryes, Lexique Étymologique de l’Irlandais Ancien; T U, 1978), and this is clearly how it was understood when the placename An Fuarán ‘the spring, ‘a spring well or fountain’’ was translated as ‘Coldewelle’ [Coldwells] in Co. Kildare as early as 1243 (see logainm.ie #25820).

A further derivate of Old Irish úarán ‘spring, ‘a spring well or fountain’ is the variant órán (Ó Dónaill s.v. órán), as found in a small number of placenames in Connaught, where one finds, for example, Oranbeg / Órán Beag ‘spring, small’ (logainm.ie #18799), and the very well-known neighbouring Oranmore / Órán Mór ‘spring, big’ (logainm.ie #18476) in Co. Galway. Notably, while Oranmore / Órán Mór is attested as ‘Uarán Mór’ in written sources, spoken Irish forms of the name recorded in the 1960s clearly reflect an initial long Ó /oː/ as in /oːrɑːn moːr/, a fact to which recognition was given in the official Irish form of the names, Órán Mór and Órán Beag.

As a qualifier we also find órán ‘spring, fountain’ in a handful of townlands in Co. Galway such as Barnanoraun / Barr na nÓrán ‘the (hill-)top of the springs” (logainm.ie #18055). A number of streams are depicted as having their source in this townland on the Ordnance Survey 6″ map — it is, then, certainly true to its name. Two further townlands that contain this element in Co. Galway are Lisheenanoran / Lisín an Óráin ‘the (small) ringfort of the spring’ (logainm.ie #18424) near Corrandulla, and Oranhill / Cnoc Óráin ‘hill of (the) spring’ (logainm.ie #18615) next to Oranmore. It is also possible that órán, when found as the final element in a number of other placenames refers to a ‘spring’, but sometimes this may also be a reflex of the homophonous personal name Órán (< Early Mod. Ir. Odhrán), e.g. Cloonoran / Cluain Óráin ‘meadow, pasture of (the) spring; or Órán’s meadow, pasture’ (logainm.ie #20540) in Co. Galway (see also Castlebellew / Cluain Óráin Íochtarach (logainm.ie #20538) and Cloonoranoughter / Cluain Óráin Uachtarach (logainm.ie #20527); along with two townlands called Gorteenoran (logainm.ie #30371) and Georgia or Gorteenoran (logainm.ie #30390) in Co. Leitrim, which are both from an original Goirtín Óráin ‘(small) field of (the) spring; or ‘Órán’s (small) field’.

In the case of Oran / Órán (logainm.ie # 2114) in Co. Roscommon there can be no doubt about its origin as it is attested a number of times in Irish literary sources, both in the simplex form of ‘Uarán’, and with qualifiers as in ‘Fuaran Mhoighe h-Oi’ ‘Órán of Maigh nAí’ (Maigh nAí is a defunct territorial name) and ‘Uarán nGaraidh’ (et var.) which retain the more conservative spellings (f)uarán ‘spring, fountain’. Anglicised ‘Oraneclabby’ recorded circa 1660 reflects another longer version of this placenames namely Órán Uí Chlabaigh ‘Órán of Ó Clabaigh’ (< Uarán), and this association with the surname Ó Clabaigh is no accident or once-off. In 1558 ‘Giolla Colaim O Clapaicch [Giolla Cholaim Ó Clabaigh]’ was described as the successor of St. Patrick at Oran (ARE V, p. 1542), and 100 years earlier in 1454 ‘Cornelius Oclabaid [Conchúr? Ó Clabaigh]’ was recorded as ‘perpetual vicar’ of this parish, i.e. ‘St. Patrick’s de Fuaian [Fuaran]’ (Calendar of Papal Registers X, pp. 704-714). Ó Clabaigh was accused by ‘Maurice Oclabaid [Muiris? Ó Clabaigh]’of having made a ‘simoniacal agreement’ to divide the ecclesiastical income of Oran with ‘Matthew Oclabaid [Matha Ó Clabaigh] who has also formerly claimed a right to that vicarage’. We have, then, three Ó Clabaighs involved in the dispute concerning the fruits of this parish, which is actually no coincidence. This family’s association with the ecclesiastical foundation at Oran was so profound that P. W. Woulfe specifically referred to the Ó Clabaighs function as ‘erenaghs [airchinnigh ‘stewards’] of the church founded by St. Patrick’s at Oran’ (Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall). In this regard it is important to note that clerical families in the Gaelic Irish church, as in this instance, were not as we would imagine in today’s world — in fact the office of parish vicar or comharba ‘successor (of the founder)’ frequently passed from father to son (both being priests). Indeed, in this instance it is possible that both ‘Matthew’ and ‘Cornelius’ were father and son. There certainly seems to be more than initially meets the eye in the history of the placename Oran and it’s Irish precursors!

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)