2024-11-11

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Púca in placenames, a researcher’s nightmare (2)
Cloghpook/Cloch an Phúcaigh (logainm.ie #26982)

Date: 08/11/2024

In last week’s note we saw that despite the frequency of Irish púca ‘sprite … ghost … bogey-man’ in placenames, anglicized spellings such as -fook, -pooka, puck(s)-, etc., can also represent Irish forms of the surname Puck/Pook or the given name Foulke introduced by the Anglo-Normans. One definite example of the name Foulke is found in Foulksmill/Muileann Fúca (logainm.ie #131844) in Co. Wexford. The surname Puck (var. Pook) appears in many others, as in the name of the townland Puckstown (logainm.ie #56008) in north Dublin (now the modern estates of Grace Park and Celtic Park either side of Collins Avenue) which is of English-language origin. (Baile Phúca, the official Irish name, is a translation.)

Sometimes name-forms recorded in Irish during Ordnance Survey fieldwork in the 19th century might at first be understood to contain the common noun púca ‘sprite’, only for earlier historical forms to point to English origin. The reason for the confusion is quite simple. As discussed in earlier notes, the substantivized adjectival form of the gaelicized surname Púc (< Puck/Pook) gives Irish An Púcach. In the genitive case, Irish gen. sg. an Phúcaigh ‘of the person surnamed Puck’ is very close in speech in most dialects to gen. sg. an phúca ‘of the pooka’; and the similarities of both forms with Irish Fúca – the traditional gaelicization of the unrelated given name Foulke – are obvious.

To confuse matters further, we find indications that Foulke was also gaelicized as *Púca (compare the variation of P-/F- in Piaras/Feoras < AN Piers). Even in the case of the well-attested Foulkstown/Baile Fúca (#47474) in Co. Tipperary, where the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates Irish Fúca (< Foulke), e.g. ‘Bally Ffowky’ (1508), ‘Fulckstown’ (1525), ‘Fowkyston’ (1539), we find one exceptional 17th-century form ‘Pookestowne’ (1659), where P- represents the radical (unlenited) initial of Irish Púca (? ≈ Fúca < Foulke). A clearer example of reinterpretation within the Irish language is found in ‘baile an phúca’ (1838), the local Irish form of Foulkstown (logainm.ie #27009) in Co. Kilkenny. The consistent historical spellings Foulkes-, Fowkes-, Fouks-, etc. (1584–1838) show that in that case, Baile an Phúcaigh ‘the town(land) of An Púcach’, derives ultimately from the given name Foulke. (It is at least possible that the name originally contained the related surname Foulkes, et var., though it does not appear to have been at all common among the Anglo-Normans in Ireland.)

This is not the only instance of such ambiguity. For example, Cloghpook (logainm.ie #26982), also in Co. Kilkenny, is attested as ‘cloch a’ phúca’ (1838), which on the face of it appears to be another collocation of the common noun púca with a topographical generic, i.e. *Cloch an Phúca “stone”. But again, earlier written forms of the name and secondary historical evidence clearly point to an eponym of Anglo-Norman origin. The element cloch ‘stone’ often refers to stone structures in Irish placenames (“a construction of stone, esp. fortress, stronghold, castle” eDIL s.v. cloch [sense (f)]; cf. FGB s.v. cloch (5)). In this case a castle named ‘The Clofowke’ is depicted on the Down Survey barony map of *c.*1655 (“in good repair”) and the field in which it was located was still called Shanachushlawn [An Seanchaisleán] (‘the old castle’) by elderly Irish speakers at the turn of the 20th century, as recorded by Corrigan (History and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory (1905) III 456). Corrigan also mentions that the owners of castle were the de Freynes (cf. Freneystown/Baile na bhFréineach (#27081) [‘Ballinevrenagh’ (1623)] 8km to the south), a family with a fondness for the given name Foulke (e.g. Fulk de la Frene †1349, son of Fulk de la Freigne †1320). It is evident that here we have another case of the personal name Foulke reinterpreted in Irish as An Púcach ‘the person surnamed *Púca/Fúca(?), i.e., Foulke), whence the official Irish form Cloghpook/Cloch an Phúcaigh. Many similar examples are discussed in Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill’s essay ‘An púca i logainmeacha’ in Ainm 1987.

The word púca is unattested in Irish literature or placenames until the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, and seems to be a borrowing from Middle English: see Middle English Dictionary s.v. pŏuk(e) ‘from OE pūca; also cp. OI pūki … An evil spirit, a devil, goblin’. It is noteworthy – with regard to the Irish collocation of the púca with the element poll ‘hole, pool, cave’ discussed last week – that the same dictionary entry quotes early attestations of English placenames such as Pukpole (1232) and toponymic surnames such as de Pukehole (1296). (See also Survey of English Place-Names s.nn. Pucks Hole [Gloucestershire], Puckpool [Gloucestershire], Pug’s Hole [Dorset]; cf. Ox. Dict. Fam. Names s.n. Puckle (2).) It seems likely that the first púca arrived in Ireland during the Anglo-Norman invasion, along with the first Foulkes and Pooks.

[CÓC & AMGC]

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