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Lost in Translation Gortnanure/Gort na nIúr “the field of yew-trees” (see logainm.ie #43296)

Date: 18/03/2024

Owing to the early date of Easter, Palm Sunday occurs this year at the end of the third week of March, on Sunday 24th. The present writer is reminded of correspondence received many years ago concerning a place called Palmfield near Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon. After much fruitless searching, it came to light that the name — which featured on no Ordnance Survey map — was in fact a late nineteenth-century local translation of Gort na nIúr “the field of the yew-trees”, from which the townland name of Gortanure (#43296) on the Roscommon–Mayo border is derived. It had literally almost been ‘lost in translation’. At first glance, Palmfield might seem an odd way of rendering Gort na nIúr into English. However, the word iúr “yew” has long been equated with “palm” in a religious context in Irish, playing the role of a familiar local substitute for the Biblical tree in phrases such as Domhnach an Iúir “Sunday of the yew”, an Irish term for Palm Sunday. Once this is known, translation of Gort na Iúr “the field of the yew-trees” as Palmfield is perfectly understandable and, indeed, reasonable. There are well over 100 townland names containing iúr “yew-tree” or a derivative thereof, reflecting the erstwhile abundance of that particular tree in Ireland. Moreover, it is particularly notable that we have a number of townland names such as Killinure/Coill an Iúir which as well as meaning “the wood of the (one particular, remarkable) yew-tree” can also mean “the wood of yew, i.e. yew-wood” in Laois, Longford, Wexford and Westmeath (see logainm.ie), a type of woodland which is now exceedingly rare in Ireland. The Irish word eo also meant “yew”; see for example Mayo/Maigh Eo “plain of (the) yew-tree” (#1820). This element also features in the commonly occurring placename Eochaill “yew-wood”, the forerunner of Oghil in Galway (#18690), Kildare (#25212), Longford (#33239), Sligo (#44916), Wicklow (#55449); Oghill in Leitrim (#30069), Monaghan (#39569); Foughill in Armagh (#56808) (with prosthetic f-, similar to Ulster foscail for oscail “open”); the extremely well-known Youghal (#13715) in Cork and a less well-known Youghal (#46368) in Tipperary. It was also the original Irish name of Moynehall (#5281) in Cavan. These names are also likely to have originally referred to forests of yew-trees. In that regard, it is worth noting that Eochaill, as a close compound of noun+noun (< eo “yew” + coill “wood”), is typically a placename of very early provenance, as that structure was not generally productive after the ninth century. It is to be hoped that in the future, comprehensive pollen analysis may be able to indicate likely time periods for the coining of these and other placenames containing references to tree species. In view of the evidence for such forests of yew in Ireland in the past, perhaps it is time to lend the iúr/eo “yew” a helping hand in re-establishing itself as a common tree in the Irish landscape. (Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

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