Featured themes

Date: 01/10/2025

As the electoral campaign for the office of Uachtarán na hÉireann / President of Ireland takes place this month (October, 2025) – the ‘Race for the Áras’ – it is timely to take a look at the interesting name of Dublin’s Phoenix Park / Páirc an Fhionnuisce, the address of the impressive presidential residence.

The legal Irish version of the name was declared as Páirc an Fhionnuisce in the Placenames (Co. Dublin) Order 2011, made by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under Part 5 of the Official Languages Act 2003. This order was based on research completed by An Brainse Logainmneacha / The Placenames Branch (now attached to the Department of Community and Rural Development and the Gaeltacht). Before the Minister signed the draft order, it was scrutinized by An Coimsiún Logainmneacha / The Placenames Commission and then submitted to the public for a three-month consultation period. Before obtaining legal status under the 2003 Act, the Irish form Páirc an Fhionnuisce had been in official use since 1958, and was frequently used in formal Irish-language contexts for many years prior to that. (Note that the State had no mechanism of establishing the official Irish forms of its placenames until the creation of An Coimisiún Logainmneacha in 1946.)

As in any area of academic research, new evidence can always come to light to expand our understanding even of placenames whose official forms have long been established. The Phoenix Park is a good example. The earliest occurrence of the name Phoenix in reference to this place dates from the early 17th century. In 1611 Sir Edward Fisher, an English adventurer in Ireland (more information below), was granted a large tract of land in west Co. Dublin which had been parcel of the demesne of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem. This included ‘all such crown lands as lie on the N[orth] side of the river Liffey and bridge of Kilmainham, containing 400 a[cres]’ (CPR, p. 200), extending from Oxmantown Green to Chapelizod. Fisher surrendered these lands back to the King for the sum of £2,500 in 1618, and ‘the said lands, with a house thereon newly built by sir Edward [at the site of the now-ruined Magazine Fort], were by his Majesty’s special directions … converted to the use of the chief governor of Ireland’ (CPR, p. 203; cf. CPR, p. 341). In 1619 we finally find our first reference to the name, in a record of repairs to ‘His Majesty’s House at Kilmainham called “The Phœnix”’ (Calendar of State Papers ... James I. 1603-1625, p. xxxi; see also ‘The Phoenix Park, its origin and early history’, C. Litton Falkiner, Journal of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 6, pp. 465–488). Although this earliest reference explicitly referred to the new house and not to the surrounding lands, by 1654 The Phoenix had also apparently come to refer to the area around the house itself, e.g. ‘Towne Lands of ... the Phoenix’, ‘At the Phoenix [is] a very stately House now in good repair’ (Civil Survey Vol. VII County Dublin, p. 292). Other references to these lands in the same source include ‘the Phenix’ and ‘the ffenix’ (pp. 223, 247). On William Petty’s map Hiberniæ Delineatio (c. 1685), we find the name ‘Pheenix’ situated rather ambiguously above a depiction of a hill with buildings on top. If The Phoenix was originally the name of the house built 1611×1618, it would seem to have been transferred to the undulating parklands by the 1650s. Writing in 1820, Thomas Cromwell was quite adamant about the original referent of the name:

It is somewhat singular that the imaginary bird from which the park is generally supposed to derive its appellation and in allusion to which this column was undoubtedly erected bears no relation to the name of the manor from which it is actually called. This in the Irish tongue was Fionn uisge signifying clear or fair water and which being pronounced Finniské so nearly resembled in the English articulation the word Phœnix that it either obtained that name from the first English settlers or was by them speedily corrupted into it. The ‘fair water’ was a chalybeate spring which still exists in a glen near the grand entrance to the vice regal lodge and has been frequented from time immemorial for its imputed salubrity. It remained however in a rude and exposed state till the year 1800 when in consequence of some supposed cures it had effected it immediately acquired celebrity and was much frequented. About five years after it was enclosed and it is now among the romantic objects of the park.
(Excursions Through Ireland: Province of Leinster, p. 166)

By his own admission (p. 47, n.) most of Cromwell’s information ‘relative to antiquities, &c.’ was taken directly from The History of the City of Dublin (1818) by James Whitelaw and Robert Walsh; his account above is simply paraphrased from theirs (Vol. 2, p. 1306). Although they give a very thorough account of contemporary Irish-language scholarship in the first volume (Vol. 1, pp. 926–937), Whitelaw and Walsh provide no source for their claim that ‘The manor was called in the Irish vernacular tongue Fionn-uisge, pronounced finniské’ (Vol. 2, p. 1306). However, they also give the following footnote: ‘The origin of this name for the Park has puzzled many scholars unacquainted with the Irish language … The appellation occurs in many places in Ireland with the same import. A river called the Phinisk [in Co. Waterford], falls, at the present day, into the Black-water … It was so called because its fair stream is contrasted with the deep hue of the Black-water, with which it mingles’. It is possible that the derivation first occurred to Robert Walsh, himself a native of Waterford, due to his familiarity with the Munster river-name. (Walsh completed the book himself after Whitelaw died. Curiously, it is not even certain that the name of the river in Co. Waterford derives from fionn+uisce, despite later folk etymology: see An Fhinisc / Finisk River (#1166126).)

In any case, the derivation from fionn+uisce was accepted by our most celebrated placename scholar, John O’Donovan, while working in the Topographical Department of the Ordnance Survey. In an early glossary of placename elements compiled c. 1830–31, he stated that the Irish name Fionnuisce lay behind ‘Fenix, a River in the County of Cork’ as well as Walsh’s aforementioned Phinisk in Co. Waterford, and also that ‘Phoenix Park near Dublin has its name from John’s well where the Priory of Knights Templars had stood’ (John O'Donovan Manuscript, s.v. uisce). (Note that St. John’s Well is not in the Phoenix Park but south of the river between Island Bridge and Kilmainham.) By the 1840s, O’Donovan had changed his mind, stating that ‘Finn-uisce [Fionnuisce], clear water, was applied to the stream near the Zoological gardens’ (Ordnance Survey Parish Namebooks (par. Castleknock)). A memorandum in the Ordnance Survey archives from George Petrie, the head of the Topographical Department, to Thomas Larcom, Assistant Supervisor of the Survey, shows that Petrie and O’Donovan had discussed the origin of the name Fionnuisce and had concluded that it must have referred to ‘the small stream which is the chief feeder of the ponds’ rather than ‘the chalybeate well near the Zoological gardens’ (Ordnance Survey Memoranda, Co. Dublin, pp.152–154; see Appendix). (Petrie’s secondary argument, that the inclusion of the definite article ‘the’ in the 17th-century references to ‘The manor of the Phœnix’ strengthened the case for the name having originally referred to a stream, ‘as the prefix the … is only applied to descriptive names’, does not seem very convincing to the present writers.)

The suggestion that English Phoenix (House/Park) might derive from Irish Fionnuisce is unproblematic from a linguistic viewpoint. Indeed, the anglicized spellings of Finisk / Fionnuisce ‘clear-water’ (logainm.ie #13599) in east Cork (mentioned by O’Donovan above) show the same development during the 17th century: from ‘Foniske’ to ‘Finewxes’ [referring to the two townlands named after the river], to ‘ffanix’, ‘The Pheonix’, ‘Phenix’ and ‘Phanix’. Later writers, though almost always accepting that the name must be from the Irish, vary in their suggested location of this Fionnuisce ‘clear-water’. P. W. Joyce’s discussion of the name in Irish Names of Places, vol. I follows John O’Donovan’s derivation:

‘fionn-uisg’ [feenisk], which means clear or limped water. It was originally the name of a beautiful and perfectly transparent spring-well near the Phœnix pillar, situated just outside the wall of the Viceregal grounds, behind the gate lodge, and which is the head of the stream that supplies the ponds near the Zoological Gardens. To complete the illusion, the Earl of Chesterfield, in the year 1745, erected a pillar near the well, with the figure of a phœnix rising from the ashes on top of it, - and most Dublin people now believe that the park received its name from the pillar. The change from fionn-uisg’ to phœnix is not peculiar to Dublin, for the river Finisk, which joins the Blackwater below Cappaquin, is called Phœnix by Smith in his History of Waterford (p. 42).

C.T. M‘Ready in his exceptionally important Dublin Street Names: dated and explained (1892) repeats Joyce almost verbatim (p. 80), and historian Maurice Craig author of Dublin: 1660-1860 also accepted the name to come from ‘a spring of clear water - Fionn Uisge’ (p. 14). However, C. L. Falkiner, while stating that he would not ‘presume to meddle in Gaelic etymology’, pointed out other difficulties with the identification:

[although] most local historians and Dr. Joyce [P. W. Joyce, Irish Names of Places I, p. 42] take the name to be a corruption of the word Fionn (or Phion) uisg’ signifying clear, or limpid water (p. 49) … [it] is not certain that Dr. Joyce is correct in fixing the site of this spring as close to the Phœnix Pillar and the entrance to the Viceregal grounds. The spring at that spot would not have been on the lands original held by Phœnix house. Assuming the suggested etymology is correct, it seems more probable that the name derives from a spring in the vicinity of the Magazine, perhaps the rivulet that runs along the valley on the north side of the Magazine Hill (Illustrations of Irish History and Topography (n.2)).

In contrast, J. Daly (‘Curative wells in old Dublin’, in Dublin Historical Record 17 (1961) 12–24; see also Archaeological Inventory of Ireland (DU018-007008)) reverts back to the chalybeate well, presumably the same as that mentioned in Thomas Cromwell’s account above. This well lies at the edge of the park near the zoo, and Daly states that it was formerly called ‘Feenisk’. However, this is not a genuine placename; it is nothing more than Joyce’s pronunciation guide ‘[feenisk]’ (Irish Names of Places, vol. I, p. 42), which itself is an attempt to make the hypothesized Irish name fionn-uisg’ look more like the English Phoenix! Note furthermore that a chalybeate well rich in iron salts would be an extremely poor candidate to be described as fionnuisce ‘clear-water’.

Reasonable though the proposed phonetic development may be, then, there is no evidence of a pre-existing Irish placename Fionnuisce ‘clear-water’ as suggested by Whitelaw and Walsh (1818), followed by Cromwell (1820) and others. It is interesting to note, therefore, that we happen to have two references to the park from Irish-speaking residents of the city in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The poet Seán Ó Neachtain (born c. 1640), originally from Co. Roscommon, mentions neither stream nor well, clear or chalybeate, in his word-play on the park’s name in his comedic prose tale Stair Éamuinn Uí Chléire (c. 1700): we find the protagonist and his partner ‘ag déanamh aeir agus aoibhnis go tuluigh árd fhad-amharcaigh dhuilligh ghéag-ghlais fhéar-uaine dá ngoirthear Nead na nEun Aduadhain agus dá ngoirthear go coitcheann an Phénics’ [“going for a pleasant stroll to a lofty, panoramic, leafy, green-boughed, green-grassed hillock called the Nest of the Weird Birds, and commonly known as An Phénics”], before they are forced to leave town and head west towards ‘Áth Thús na Seachtmhaine, Baile Átha Luain’ [“the ford of the beginning of the week, Baile Átha Luain / Athlone”, a pun on Dé Luain “Monday”]. Note that this text long predates the erection of the Phoenix Monument at the centre of the park on Chesterfield Avenue in the 1740s. Nor does Seán’s son Tadhg Ó Neachtain (born c. 1671) make any reference to fionnuisce in 1728, when he gives the Irish form of The Deer Park, a common contemporary alias for the Phoenix Park, as ‘páirc na bhfhiadha’ “the park of the deer” (King’s Inns Library MS 20).

In light of this evidence, it is little wonder that the 20th-century placename scholar Risteard Ó Foghludha (Fiachra Éilgeach) wrote ‘Páirc an Fhionnuisce, accepted Irish form [of the name of the park] does not appear to be at all justified. Derived from a former Phoenix Lodge, remote from the reputed clear stream near Zoological Gardens’ (Log-Ainmneacha, 1935). Such doubts are clearly well-grounded, but the ‘accepted’ Irish form now has legal as well as official authority.

Finally, a note regarding the man who built the ‘The Phœnix’ house. Sir Edward Fisher (ob. 1631), amassed great wealth for himself in his time in Ireland (see for example CPR, pp. 92, 212, 218, 220, 221, 358): knighted in 1603, he was elected MP for Enniscorthy borough in 1613, and finally made sheriff of Wexford in 1624. In 1605 he was awarded a pension of eight shillings daily for life (backdated to October 1603), and he was made a freeman of Dublin in right of his wife Alice Edwardes in 1617. His sons-in-law included Sir Walsingham Cooke and Edward Chichester, both heavily involved in the Wexford plantation. In 1612 he employed a legal ruse (Chichester once described him as ‘counsel learned in the laws’) to obtain 1,500 acres for himself from the inhabitants of the civil parish of Kiltennell east of Gorey in Co. Wexford: put simply, he stole it. This directly led to the dispossession the chief of the Mac Dáibhí Mhóir sept in the area (who shortly afterward adopted the surname Redmond in English). This family was forced to move from its principal seat in Mountalexander, then called Muine Alastraim. All the evidence from his time in Ireland demonstrates that Fisher was an individual of intensely dishonest character, whose connections with Chichester, the Lord Deputy, enabled him to benefit from the largescale appropriation of land that was legally held by the Gaelic Irish inhabitants under English law (see C. Ó Crualaoich & K. Whelan, Gaelic Wexford: 1400 - 1660, forthcoming). Far from the purity of fionnuisce, the man who named his house The Phoenix had the murkiest of careers.

Appendix:
Ordnance Survey Memoranda (Co. Dublin) 27/5/1844, pp. 152–154.

Phœnix Park (origin of name)
My dear Larcom
... Respecting the origin of the {153} name of the Phœnix Park it appears certain to me, and O’Donovan also, that the name is derived from the small stream which is the chief feeder of the ponds, and not from the chalybeate well near the Zoological gardens. From documents of the middle of the 17th century, it appears that this Park was formed of two manors, “The manor of the Phœnix” and “the manor of Newtownland” which I think very clearly shows that the name was derived from a stream, as the prefix the {154} to Phœnix [sic], is only applied to descriptive names.The original Irish would be, Fionn-uisge, according to the modern orthography, and Finn-uisce, according to the ancient: and the corruption of uisce to ix, is a common one both in England and Ireland, as Llwyd shows in his comparative Etymological dictionary of the Irish, Welsh and Cornish. Fionn-uisge, anglicised Finisk, is the name of several streams in the south of Ireland. If we can make out anything curious about the origin of the name you shall hear it.
Ever yours,
George Petrie
27th May 44

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Páirc an Fhionnuisce/Phoenix Park

Date: 01/10/2025

The Irish for October is Deireadh Fómhair “(the) end of harvest (time)”, and it is therefore interesting to note that fómhar “harvest (time)” is not particularly common in Irish placenames, but it is found in the precursor to Knockanore Mountain, namely Cnoc an Fhómhair “the hill of the harvest”, the name of a hill in Kerry.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Cnoc an Fhómhair/Knockanore Mountain

Date: 27/09/2025

Although not as common as eorna “barley” in townland names seagal “rye” also occurs more frequently than cruithneacht “wheat” in such names. Ard an tSeagail “the height of the rye” is behind anglicised Ardataggle in Laois and Clare. The placename Knockataggle/Cnoc an tSeagail “the hill of the rye” also refers to elevated ground, but in general seagal “rye” does not appear to occur nearly as often as eorna “barley” in placenames referring to hills or hillocks. In fact, we also have Pollataggle in Galway and Poulataggle which are both from Poll an tSeagail “the hole or pool of the rye”. Low ground is also implied in the name Srahataggle/Sraith na tSeagail “the river-meadow, holm of the rye” in Mayo. A number of townland names with seagal “rye” also refer to the fields in which it was grown, such as Cappataggle/Ceapaigh an tSeagail “the tillage field of the rye” in Galway, and Gortataggle/Gort an tSeagail “the field of the rye” in Leitrim. Ryefield in Cork is a translation of Gort an tSeagail, but Ryefield in Cavan is a translation of Achadh an tSeagail “the field of the rye”. However, one of the oddest townland names containing seagal “rye” is doubtless Ballyguileataggle in Limerick which is evidently from Baile Gaill an tSeagail “the town of Gall an tSeagail (i.e. of the foreigner of the rye)”.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Ard an tSeagail/Ardataggle
• Ard an tSeagail/Ardateggle

Date: 20/09/2025

Cappaghnahoran/Ceapach na hEorna “the tillage plot of the barley” in Laois is just one of a number of Irish townland names that refer to eorna “barley”. The alternative English name Windsor is evidently an eighteenth-century English creation.

Like coirce “oats”, the word eorna “barley” is far more common in Irish townland names than cruithneacht “wheat”, thereby reflecting the importance of eorna “wheat” in the native Irish diet (see logainm.ie #27806. Geographically it is found north, south, east and west, and it is therefore difficult to determine where there may have been a particular concentration of cultivation. We have Craiginorne/Creag na hEorna “the stony ground of the barley” in Antrim, Carricknahorna/Carraig na hEorna “the rock of the barley” in Sligo and Creggaunnahorna/Creagán na hEorna “the stony ground of the barley” in Mayo. Notably, like coirce “oats” many of the placenames with eorna “barley” refer to elevated locations such as Barleyhill in Cork which is actually a translation of Cnoc na hEorna “the hill of the barley”. Cnoc na hEorna is also behind Knocknahorn in Tyrone, Knocknahorna in Donegal and Mayo, but Knocknahorna in Offaly is from Cnocán na hEorna “the little hill of barley”. Elevated ground is also referred to in Maulnahorna in Cork and Kerry which is from Meall na hEorna “the mound of the barley”, and the diminutive Millín na hEorna “the little mound of barley” is behind Milleennahorna, the name of two further townlands in Cork. Cronyhorn/Corrán na hEorna “the rounded-hill, edge, projecting point of the barley” in Wicklow also refers to an elevated location, but we also, though less frequently, find it in a com “hollow”, as in Coomnahorna/Com na hEorna “the hollow of the barley”.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Cnoc na hEorna/Barleyhill
• Meall na hEorna/Maulnahorna
• Millín na hEorna/Milleennahorna
• Millín na hEorna/Milleennahorna
• Cnoc na hEorna/Knocknahorna
• Ceapach na hEorna/Windsor or Cappaghnahoran
• Creagán na hEorna/Creggaunnahorna
• Cnocán na hEorna/Knocknahorna
• Corrán na hEorna/Cronyhorn
• Creag na hEorna/Craiginorne

Date: 13/09/2025

Continuing on the theme of harvest in the month of September, or Meán Fómhair in Irish, literally “the middle of harvest(-time)”, one of the best known placenames referring to coirce “oats” is surely Gort an Choirce “the field of oats”, where so many spent time in the Donegal Gaeltacht during their youth (see logainm.ie: #14446). Exactly the same name is behind anglicised Gortahork and Gortacorka in Leitrim as well as translated Oatfield in Clare. Aghincurk/Achadh an Choirce in Antrim also means “the field of the oats”. Oatfield in Galway is a mistranslation of Corr an Choirce “the round hill of the oats”, which also happens to be the original Irish form of Corrycorka in Longford. Both Knockhurka in Sligo and Knockaquirk in Wicklow are from Cnoc an Choirce “the hill of the oats”, while Taobh an Choirce/Tiveachorky “the hillside of the oats” in Donegal also refers to the frequent cultivation of oats on elevated ground as, apparently, does Tomacork/Tom an Choirce “the bush, hillock of the oats” in Wicklow. However, this is not always the case, as we also have Inchincurka/Inse an Choirce “the holm of the oats” in Cork. In Wicklow we have Coolacork/Cúil an Choirce “the nook, recess of the oats”, and there is also Tirchorka/Tír an Choirce “the land of the oats” in Meath.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Gort an Choirce/Gortahork

Date: 06/09/2025

As we enter the month of September, or Meán Fómhair in Irish, literally “the middle of harvest(-time)”, it’s interesting to note that there are much fewer townland names in Ireland which contain cruithneacht “wheat”, than those containing coirce “oats”, eorna “barley” or seagal “rye”. This clearly implies that the other varieties of grain were more important than cruithneacht/wheat in the native Irish diet.

One placename containing a reference to cruithneacht/wheat is Córrán na Cruithneachta “the rounded-hill, edge, projecting point of the wheat” near Camolin in County Wexford, although it is hidden behind the unrelated English name Whitewell which refers to a ‘holy well’ located in this townland (see logainm.ie #52805). One of the other townland names referring to cruithneacht/wheat is Tullanacrunat/Tulaigh na Cruithneachta “the hillock of the wheat” in Monaghan (#39761), and elsewhere in Ulster we find Tullycreenaght/Tulaigh Chruithneachta “(the) mound of wheat” as well as Wheathill/Gort na Cruithneachta “the field of the wheat” (see logainm.ie: #63034; #59256). The English name Wheathill in Fermanagh is a partial translation of Gort na Cruithneachta “the field of the wheat” (see here). It is quite noticeable that most townland names containing cruithneacht/wheat refer to elevated locations, which may come from the need for wheat to be grown better drained and airy locations.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Corrán na Cruithneachta/Whitewell
• Gort na Cruithneachta/Wheathill
• Tulaigh Chruithneachta/Tullycreenaght

Date: 01/09/2025

Since its inception in the 1930s, the National Ploughing Championships has grown exponentially to become rural Ireland’s largest annual event, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors over the course of the week. This year ‘The Ploughing’ is being held in the townland of An Screagán / Screggan (logainm.ie #1166663) in the civil parish of Lainn Eala / Lynally in Co. Offaly. Unlike the latter placename – more of which below – An Screagán simply describes the quality of the land. Formed on the word screag, using what we might call the ‘toponymic’ suffix -án, it denotes an area or patch of rough, rocky or stony ground. The ending -án normally operates as a diminutive – essentially X + -án means ‘little X’ – but in placenames it tends to indicate an area characterized by the word to which the suffix is attached. Therefore, screagán, although it could mean ‘little screag’, more likely conveys the meaning ‘screag-place’. (Compare bogán – a word of frequent occurrence in placenames – which means ‘(area of) soft ground’, formed from the adjective bog.) The word screagán is a variant of creagán – itself a diminutive of creag ‘rock’ (eDIL s.v. crec) – and is explained in dictionaries as a ‘rocky eminence’ or ‘(patch of) stony, barren, ground’ (FGB s.v. screagán; cf. eDIL s.v. screc). The most well-known example is probably the parish of An Creagán / Creggan (logainm.ie #2734; cf. PNNI) in Co. Armagh, subject of a famous Irish poem by Art Mac Cumhaidh (sung here by a local native speaker in the same year as the first Ploughing Championship).

A place called An Screagán / Screggan ‘(patch of) stony, barren, ground’ does not, on the face of it, seem like the best location for a ploughing competition (although we have a ready-made theme tune in another fine song, ‘The Rocks of Bawn’). Doing a little digging of our own, we find that the name An Screagán did not necessarily originally refer to the whole of the modern townland of Screggan. In fact, the wonderfully useful subsoil maps provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPAMaps) show that the southwestern half of Screggan consists of limestone gravel with limestone till in the northeastern half. It is just over the townland boundary to the east that we find two patches of surface bedrock, the feature to which An Screagán most likely originally referred. The townland in which this rocky area is located is called Mucklagh / An Muclach ‘the place of pigs; piggery’, a name which refers to how the land was used rather than its topography. The development of placenames from their original literal meaning is a fascinating topic in itself, but is a discussion for another day.

Deriving straightforwardly from a description of the land, Screggan in Co. Offaly is not the only townland name containing screagán, although examples are not very numerous. Anyone who has visited the Rock of Cashel in Co. Tipperary, located in the townland officially called Saint Patricksrock / Carraig Phádraig (#47551), will have been struck by the surface bedrock in and around the ecclesiastical site. It will come as no surprise to learn that the name of the rocky ground just below the church to the north is Scraggaun / An Screagán (#47524). Scriggan in Co. Derry – another example of An Screagán – seems to refer to a similar rocky feature (see placenamesni.org). However, it is the synonymous creagán (and its other variants) that prevails in townland names, to the extent that we could not possibly list all the examples here.

Our Screggan, the site of this year’s Ploughing Championship, is located in the civil parish of Lynally, the name of which is an anglicization of Lainn Eala ‘church of (the) swan’. The first element of that name is very interesting: it is related to the word llann which features so prominently in the toponymy of Wales. As to the second element, it derives from the name of the founding saint of the parish, Colmán Eala. This saint was very famous in the native Irish ecclesiastical tradition (see P. Ó Riain, A Dictionary of Irish Saints), to the extent that there exist a number of different Irish accounts of his life. Some of these attempt to explain the origin of the epithet Eala (see in Bethada Náem nÉrenn: ‘Betha Cholmain Eala annso’). A version of the genealogical background of this Colmán is provided, along with an account of his arrival in the territory in which he founded Lainn Eala. We are told that there was a lake here called Loch Eala ‘lake of (the) swan’, which neither man nor animal would dare approach because it was guarded by a wicked beast, conveniently called Lainn. [Peist urcoidech do bí i lLoch Eala … ni lamhadh duine na ainmide dol a n-gaire don loch ar a h-ecla … dob e comhainm na peiste-sin .i. Lainn]. Colmán summoned the aid of various saints and clerics, who decapitated the beast named Lainn and buried its remains in the newly consecrated graveyard. The lake in which Lainn lived was already called Loch Eala, let us not forget, but to drive the point home more swans arrived at the new church to sing soothing songs for the saints. Thus the placename Lainn Eala is explained. (For further references to this place in Irish sources see E-Onomasticon s.n. lann elo.)

As often happens in early Irish literature, we are left wondering whether Loch Eala was a real place or whether it was merely a literary creation. A sceptic would look at the present-day townland of Lynally Glebe / Lainn Eala (#42263) – where there is no lake – and scoff at the Irish story. But we will return to the scientific analysis of the EPA maps: this townland contains a very large area of alluvial soil stretching into the surrounding townlands, between the modern courses of the Tullamore River and the river Clodiagh. Indeed, the land just north of the ruins in Lynally are described as Flooded Bottoms on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey 6ʺ map. It is plausible that this is the site of the historical Loch Eala, and that the lake was gradually drained over the years. (Note that the EPA maps show that the little lake beside Mucklagh was also far larger once upon a time.)

As happens every now and again with these placename notes, there is a serious point to be made here. Rewetting is often considered as a measure to alleviate the risk of flooding; areas like this – where the former existence of natural lakes and wetlands are revealed by a combination of placename research and modern-day soil maps – might be prime candidates. However, if you have ever been to the Ploughing Championship down the years, you will know that it can be wet enough in September. Maybe it is just as well that the ploughing match will take place on the hard ground of An Screagán after all, and not the area once covered by Loch Eala and its horrible monster.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• An Screagán/Screggan

Date: 30/08/2025

The name of the townlands Ballyboggan North and Ballyboggan South in the old civil parish of Finglas – situated between modern Cabra, Glasnevin and Finglas – have been in the news recently. Earlier this year, a planned urban regeneration development in the area was described in an Irish Times editorial as having been given ‘the unlovely working title of Ballyboggan after a little-known local road’ (Irish Times (24-04-2025), our emphasis). Predictably, this comment sparked a discussion about the name of the development. A submission was forwarded to the local authority (Dublin City Council) suggesting that the name be changed from Ballyboggan to Hamilton, ‘after Ireland’s greatest mathematician, William Rowan Hamilton’ (see Submission: William Rowan-Hamilton). This submission noted that the bridge at Broombridge had been renamed Hamilton Bridge in 1958, and that in 2014 the then Minister of Transport announced that the name of the new Luas Depot would be Broombridge-Hamilton Depot. It could have gone further and mentioned the six streetnames in the vicinity of Broombridge that also commemorate the same eminent figure: Rowan Hamilton Court and Hamilton Square in Cabra; Hamilton Rise, Hamilton Way, Hamilton Walk and Hamilton View in Ashtown. It is safe to say that the official urban toponymy of the area has not been neglecting William Rowan Hamilton. Nevertheless, as the Irish Times now reports, the council seems to have changed the name of the new development to ‘Broombridge-Hamilton’ (Irish Times (23-08-2025), to go along with the six streets, the bridge and the Luas depot already bearing his name, giving us a scarcely imaginable number of nine (9) features named in his memory locally.

So why, exactly, would the placename Ballyboggan be considered so ‘unlovely’? Let us look at its underlying Irish form. The Irish versions of the administrative townland names Ballyboggan South and Ballyboggan North were declared as Baile Bogáin Theas and Baile Bogáin Thuaidh, respectively, in the Placenames (Co. Dublin) Order 2011, made by the then Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under Part 5 of the Official Languages Act 2003. This order was based on research carried out by An Brainse Logainmneacha / The Placenames Branch (nowadays a section of the Department of Community and Rural Development and the Gaeltacht). Before the Minister signed the draft order, it was scrutinized by An Coimsiún Logainmneacha / The Placenames Commission and then submitted to the public for a three-month consultation period. (Note that no submissions were received in respect of Baile Bogáin Thuaidh and Baile Bogáin Theas during the public consultation period.)

As to the placename itself, the elements North and South represent a late administrative subdivision made by the Ordnance Survey in the 1840s, and of course the underlying placename we need to look at is simply Baile Bogáin / Ballybogan. The evidence is not entirely straightforward, but the Placenames Commission ultimately concluded that it was best reconciled with the Irish form Baile Bogáin ‘town(land) of/at (the) soft ground’. This is not the only interpretation possible. For instance, the groundbreaking Irish scholar John O’Donovan – who, at the current count, has only one (1) single street named in his honour in Dublin – suggested ‘baile an bhogáin’ [Baile an Bhogáin] ‘the town(land) of the soft ground’ when he analysed the name for the Ordnance Survey in 1840. This differs only slightly from the modern official form Baile Bogáin, which interprets the overall historical evidence – including references unavailable to O’Donovan in 1840 – as lacking support for the Irish genitive article an with required lenition of the initial consonant of gen. bogáin. As the members of the Placenames Commission were well aware, both of the features just mentioned are often omitted in anglicization, and as is so often the case they had to make a judgement call on which form to recommend in the draft placenames order presented for public consultation. Another derivation that had to be taken into account was Baile Uí Bhogáin ‘the town(land) of Ó Bogáin’, containing the Irish surname usually anglicized Boggan, but in that case again lenition of the initial of the final element would be anticipated.

The decisions that An Coiste Logainmneacha / Placenames Committee – the modern-day iteration of An Coimisiún Logainmneacha – have to make when considering the evidence and settling on the most appropriate form to recommend are sometimes very finely balanced indeed. When a specific Irish name is established as the legal version of a placename – and of course the State can only declare one legal Irish version for each of its official placenames – it is because the Placenames Committee considers, on the balance of the evidence, that this was the form most recently used by local Irish-speakers when Irish was still the community language of the place in question. Other derivations cannot always be ruled out, however, and one of the jobs of the Placenames Branch is to present the evidence underlying each placename and to provide the proper context of the officially recommended forms. (For example, we will see below that there is another Ballyboggan in Co. Meath for which none of the anglicized forms reflect lenited Bh-, but for which Irish attestations survive proving that the name was Baile Uí Bhogáin!)

In any case, for Ballyboggan (North, South) in Dublin, the overall evidence was deemed, on balance, to reflect an underlying Baile Bogáin. The bogán ‘soft ground’ (see FGB s.v. bogán, eDIL s.v. bocán) in question may well have been in the area of alluvial soil next to the Tolka River, prone to remaining soft long after the surrounding ground had dried out after flooding. It is also possible that the townland once contained other areas of soft ground obscured by the modern urban landscape. A number of other townland names across Ireland have been anglicized as Ballyboggan, but their original Irish precursors are not all the same. We mentioned that Ballyboggan (logainm.ie #38910) in Co. Meath derives from Baile Uí Bhogáin ‘the town(land) of Ó Bogáin (anglic. Boggan)’: the Annals of the Four Masters have ‘baile ui bogáin’ [gen.] (1447) and the corresponding Annals of Connacht have ‘a mBali .h. Bhogan’ (in which .h. represents Mod.Ir. Uí). The same surname also gave name to the townland of Ballybogan / Baile Uí Bhogáin (logainm.ie #16254) in Co. Donegal and the village of Clanabogan / Cluain Uí Bhogáin ‘the (wet) pasture of Ó Bogáin’ (logainm.ie #1167028; PNNI) in Co. Tyrone. In contrast, however, the townlands Ballyboggan and Bogganstown in Co. Wexford both appear to derive from Baile Uí Bheagáin ‘the town(land) of Ó Beagáin’, containing the unrelated surname Ó Beagáin, which also appears to have been anglicized Boggan in the southeast (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland names of Co. Wexford).

Of far more frequent occurrence than the surname Ó Bogáin in placenames is the common noun bogán ‘(area of) soft ground’. Ballyboggan (logainm.ie #20382) in the parish of Ahascragh in Co. Galway is from Baile an Bhogáin ‘the town(land) of the soft ground’, doubtless in reference to the bog in the western half of that townland. Evidence for a second Ballyboggan (logainm.ie #19834) in the parish of Monivea in the same county is more difficult to analyse, but its location as an island completely surrounded by cutover peat (see EPA soil maps) ultimately favours derivation from Baile an Bhogáin ‘the town(land) of (at) the soft ground’. Examples in which bogán occurs with generic elements other than baile ‘town(land)’ include Tawnawoggaun / Tamhnaigh an Bhogáin ‘the grassy (up)land of (in) the soft ground’ (logainm.ie #37443) in Co. Mayo and Turavoggaun / Tor an Bhogáin ‘the tall rock of (at) the soft ground’ (logainm.ie #46101) in Co. Tipperary. The latter name must refer to one of the rocky outcrops next to Moanavoggaun (< ?Móin an Bhogáin ‘the bog of the soft ground’), where there is a large peat bog.

Bogán ‘(area of) soft ground’ is also found as a generic element in its own right. In simplex form – that is to say, without any qualifying element – An Bogán ‘the soft ground’ is anglicized as Boggan or Boggaun in the names of townlands in Cos. Carlow (logainm.ie #3353), Galway (logainm. #19912), Kilkenny (logainm.ie #26705), Leitrim (logainm.ie #29021), Meath (logainm.ie #38231) and Tipperary (logainm.ie #46791). Two townland names in Co. Galway show the plural form Boggauns / Na Bogáin ‘the areas of soft ground’ (logainm.ie #18961; #20404). Examples with qualifying adjectives include Bogganfin / An Bogán Fionn ‘the fair, white soft ground’ (logainm.ie #42321) in Co. Roscommon, Lowpark / An Bogán Mór ‘the big area of soft ground’ (logainm.ie #18023) in Co. Galway, and Boggaunreagh / An Bogán Riabhach ‘the greyish, striped soft ground’ (logainm.ie #41518) in Co. Offaly. There is no shortage of townland names containing the element bogán ‘soft land’ in Ireland, and Ballyboggan in Co. Dublin is no outlier. (Regrettably, although the Placenames Branch has been researching the abovementioned placenames since the 1960s we do not appear to have any data indicating whether the local people consider them lovely or unlovely.)

We would point out finally that even though the earliest attested forms of Ballyboggan in Co. Dublin date from 1613, the placename itself is certainly far older. Unfortunately, the majority of Irish placenames cannot be traced back further than the beginning of the 17th century, due to the loss of historical documents. That the placename Baile Bogáin was coined when Irish was still the vernacular in this area is self-evident; as such, it is surely of deep local significance, both culturally and linguistically. Moreover, it is noteworthy that many Irish placenames such as Baile Bogáin refer to wet land where none is now present. ‘Improvements’ made by landowners in the generations following the mass dispossessions of the 17th century have obliterated countless wetlands from our landscape and often it is only the Irish placenames that recall features of this type. The name Ballyboggan / Baile Bogáin ‘town(land) of (at the) soft land’ – on the banks of the Tolka River on the northside of Dublin – is one of hundreds of such examples.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• An Bogán/Boggan
• Baile Uí Bhogáin/Ballybogan
• Baile Bogáin Thuaidh/Ballyboggan North
• An Bogán Mór/Lowpark
• Na Bogáin/Boggauns
• Baile an Bhogáin/Ballyboggan
• An Bogán/Boggaun
• Baile an Bhogáin/Ballyboggan
• Na Bogáin/Boggauns
• An Bogán/Boggan
• An Bogán/Boggaun
• Tamhnaigh an Bhogáin/Tawnawoggaun
• An Bogán/Boggan
• Baile Uí Bhogáin/Ballyboggan
• An Bogán Riabhach/Boggaunreagh
• An Bogán Fionn/Bogganfin
• Tor an Bhogáin/Turavoggaun
• An Bogán/Boggaun
• Cluain Uí Bhogáin/Clanabogan
• Bóthar Uí Dhonnabháin/O'Donovan Road

Date: 23/08/2025

Some months ago, the Placenames Branch was contacted by a native speaker of Scottish Gaelic from the Hebridean island of Lewis / Leòdhas enquiring about the Irish equivalent of the Gaelic placename element àirigh, which she explained as meaning “an area or pasture land for … summer milking of cattle”. She kindly followed up with the additional information that àirigh was often found in very remote locations. (For more discussion of Gaelic àirigh, which has a very interesting history in this part of Scotland, see Foster 2017; Fellow-Jensen, Nomina 1980.) In contrast, in Lewis / Leòdhas the word buaile was understood to refer to a cattle fold, enclosure, dairy, milking place, “usually on the periphery of the farmland or townland and used in commonage”. She went on to say, “The word [buaile] was not, as far as I can see, used for the distant grazing pastures for summer milking.”

This information is of particular interest to us, because in Irish placenames – contrary to what is often presumed – the generic element buaile was not restricted to ‘vertical’ transhumance, i.e., from lowlands to higher pastures. In fact, buaile could refer to any location, regardless of altitude, that became suitable for grazing under particular weather conditions, or to any place that had been specifically set aside for grazing at certain times of the year, as in Boleynanollag / Buaile na Nollag ‘the boley of Christmas-time’ (logainm.ie #21027) and Easterfield / Buaile na Cásca ‘the boley of Easter-time’ (logainm.ie #20989) in Co. Galway (‘Baulanacaske’ 1801); and Boolanacausk / Buaile na Cásca ‘the boley of Easter-time’ (logainm.ie #7433) in Co. Clare. (Even so, as we saw last week, care was still to be taken in some of the places chosen, e.g. Bolabradda / An Bhuaile Bhradach ‘the treacherous boley’ (logainm.ie #52877) and Ballybregagh / An Bhuaile Bhréagach ‘the false (deceptive, treacherous) boley’ (logainm.ie #52339) in Co. Wexford.)

In the examples from Lewis / Leòdhas, then, Scottish Gaelic àirigh served a different purpose to buaile, referring to locations further away from the farm. Note that Dwelly (Am Faclair Beag) s.v. àirigh gives ‘hill pasture’ and ‘Summer residence for herdsmen and cattle’. This is in keeping with the attested meanings of the word’s Old Irish forerunner áirge, i.e., ‘summer milking-places in the mountains’, ‘place for milking cows, byre, cowshed’ (it could also refer to the herd of cattle itself; eDIL s.v. áirge). See for example Luid Mael Ruain Tamlachta fechtas dia airge .i. ceppan i Sléib Mairgge “Máel Rúain of Tallaght once went to his summer milking-place, i.e., a clearing in Slievemargie” (quoted in Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming p. 44). In any case, this interesting correspondence concerning Hebridean examples of àirigh led us to seek placenames on our own island containing the Modern Irish form of the same word, áirí. (Cf. ‘a herd (of cattle), a pasture, a herdman’s hut’ Dinneen (1927) s.v. airghe; ‘milking-place; herd (of cows)’ Ó Dónaill s.v. áirí. Note the variation of short a- and long á-, which we will see again below.)

The first thing to be noted is that in Irish placenames the sense conveyed by Scottish àirigh – (remote) summer milking-place – is already covered by the predominant Modern Irish element buaile, which could be found on high ground or low, whether near or far from the farm, unlike the restricted distribution of Scottish Gaelic buaile on Leòdhas. Having said that, however, examples of áirí are not unknown in Irish townland names. It is ironic that what is probably the most unambiguous example could not be situated much further away from our correspondent’s home in the Hebrides! The townland of Drominaharee / Drom na hÁirí ‘the ridge of the (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #23392) in Co. Kerry is some 700 km from Lewis, which if nothing else reminds us of the vast contiguous area once covered by the Gaelic-speaking world. Interestingly, the meaning of …na hÁirí in this placename was not understood by the local Irish-speaking community in the mid-19th century. Nor was it clear to the Irish scholar John O’Donovan, who visited the area in 1841 while working on the Ordnance Survey. O’Donovan was a native Irish-speaker and reasonably familiar with Middle Irish literature even at this early stage of his career. He interpreted the name as the ‘ridge of the watching’, confusing the final element with the unconnected word aire (eDIL s.v. 1 aire). Drominaharee / Drom na hÁirí is located in steep, mountainous terrain, very much in keeping with animal-husbandry restricted to the summer months. However, it would seem that by the late 18th/early 19th century, either the practice of bringing cattle to this particular áirí had long ceased, or the word had been completely usurped by buaile in common speech, and the meaning of the placename was forgotten.

Note that the word áiríoch ‘herdsman’ – a derivative of áirí (eDIL s.v. áirgech) – occurs in the name of another mountainous townland in Co. Kerry, Derreenanaryagh / Doirín na nÁiríoch ‘the (little) (oak-)grove of the herdsmen’ (logainm.ie #22330) near Glencar. Strange to say, O’Donovan correctly identified this word (‘shepherds’). So did Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (a.k.a. An Seabhac), another highly regarded native Irish-speaking placenames scholar, in the 20th century.

Other upland examples in the southern half of Ireland include Glenary / Gleann Áirí ‘valley of (the) (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #49236) in the Comeragh Mountains, Co. Waterford, and Killary / Coill Áirí ‘wood of (the) (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #46377) near Ballina in Co. Tipperary. The same name appears as Killaree / Coill Áirí ‘wood of (the) (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #26989) in Co. Kilkenny. Although this last example is not located in a mountainous area, the local topography is dominated by steep hills to the south and east of the Black Castle, mostly under tree cover, with large amounts of surface bedrock (see epa). Like the townlands already mentioned, this terrain would almost certainly have been suitable for grazing only in summer months. (Note again that the local Irish-speakers did not understand the word áirí in the 19th century: they told Eoghan Ó Comhraí / Eugene O’Curry, ‘there are three of the Kings of Ireland buried in [the large rath in Killaree townland], whence the name Kileree or the Cell of the King’ LSO I 203 (1839), as if *cill an rí!)

Still in the south, we find Arywee / Airí Bhuí ‘yellow (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #31155) in Co. Limerick. (Airí is a local variant of áirí with short initial /a/.) This townland is located on relatively low land, however, and airí in question may have been near the peat bog in the west. Arrybreaga / Airí Bhréige ‘false (summer) milking-place’ (logainm.ie #32471) is another low-lying townland in the same county, mostly containing free-draining soil which would have been suitable for grazing all year round. In parts of the townland, however, grazing would have been restricted to fine weather, namely the surface bedrock extending up to the hilltop to the neighbouring Longstone to the east, and the area of peat fen to the west. As we saw last week, bréige, the genitive form of the noun bréag ‘falsehood, lie’ is used in Irish as an adjective meaning ‘false, deceptive’: the ‘false airí’ may have referred to one of these areas of marginal land which was not, despite first appearances, suitable for grazing.

So we come full circle and finish with a some more placenames containing the elements bréige (gen.) or bréagach (adj.) ‘lying, false; (dangerously) deceptive, treacherous’:

• Ard Mhacha Bréige ‘the false Ard Mhacha’, the forerunner to Ardmaghbreague (logainm.ie #38187) and Armaghbrague (logainm.ie #56378; placenamesni) in Cos. Meath and Armagh, respectively, in contrast to the ‘real’ Ard Mhacha / Armagh (#1411561);
• Knockbreaga / Cnoc Bréige ‘false, (dangerously) deceptive(?) hill’ (logainm.ie #37474) in Co. Mayo;
• Boughilbreaga / An Buachaill Bréige ‘the false boy, cowherd’ (logainm.ie #1413201) in Co. Limerick (‘there is an old stone on top of it’ *c.*1973);
• Shauneenabreaga / Seáinín na Bréige ‘the false Seáinín’ (logainm.ie #1421372) in Co. Waterford (a mountain-top cairn, WA002-080).
• Foylenabreaga / Faill na Bréige ‘the false cliff’ (#1415485) beside the Aherlow River in Co. Limerick;
• Trawbreaga Bay / Trá Bhréige ‘treacherous strand’ (logainm.ie #111463) in Co. Donegal (where the Ordnance Survey Letters record people being swept away by sudden tides);
• Carnanbregagh / An Carnán Bréagach ‘the false/deceptive (little) cairn, heap of stones’ (logainm.ie #33822) in Co. Louth.

Last week we noted John O’Donovan’s personal description of the river Breagagh / An Bhréagach ‘the treacherous (river)’ in his native Co. Kilkenny, which got its name because it would often break its banks, sometimes with tragic consequences. When he was in West Kerry in 1841 the locals pointed out the dangerous rock near the mouth of Cuan Fionntrá (Ventry Harbour) with several smaller rocks between it and the mainland. These rocks, they said, “deceive the boatmen” (ÓD:AL); the Irish name of this treacherous feature is An Bréagaire ‘the liar’ (logainm.ie #1393949).

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Buaile na Cásca/Boolanacausk
• Buaile na Cásca/Easterfield
• Buaile na Nollag/Boleynanollag
• Doirín na nÁiríoch/Derreenanaryagh
• Drom na hÁirí/Drominaharee
• Coill Áirí/Killaree
• Airí Bhuí/Arywee
• Airí Bhréige/Arrybreaga
• An Carnán Bréagach/Carnanbregagh
• Cnoc Bréige/Knockbreaga
• Ard Mhacha Bréige/Ardmaghbreague
• Coill Áirí/Killary
• Gleann Áirí/Glenary
• An Bhuaile Bhréagach/Ballybregagh
• An Bhuaile Bhradach/Bolabradda
• Ard Mhacha Bréige/Armaghbrague
• Trá Bhréige/Trawbreaga Bay
• Ard Mhacha/Armagh
• An Buachaill Bréige/Boughilbreaga
• Droichead Fhaill na Bréige/Foylenabreaga Bridge
• Seáinín na Bréige/Shauneenabreaga

Date: 16/08/2025

In our discussion of nicknames among the Gaelic Irish over the last two weeks, we have noted a number of personal epithets and descriptive adjectives that were not all that complimentary. We continue the theme with a few more examples:

• ‘Ferrall Bradagh’ [Fearghal Bradach], i.e., thieving/dishonest Fearghal Bradach , of Co. Longford (Fiants [Eliz.] §4924, anno 1596);
• ‘Walter Bradagh m‘Laghlin boy’ [Ualtar Bradach mac Lochlainn Bhuí], i.e., thieving/dishonest Ualtar Bradach mac Lochlainn Bhuí , son of ‘yellow’ Lochlann of Co. Galway (Fiants [Eliz.] §4028, anno 1582) (see last week’s note for the epithet buí ‘yellow’; anglic. Laghlin could also represent the common Irish name Maoleachlainn);
• ‘Morgh bregaghe m‘Teig oge’ [Murcha Bréagach mac Taidhg Óig], i.e., lying/deceitful Murcha Bréagach mac Taidhg Óig , of Inchiquin, Co. Clare (Fiants [Eliz.] §3042, anno 1577);
• ‘John Bregagh’ [Seán Bréagach], i.e., lying/deceitful Seán Bréagach , [prob. Co. Limerick] (Fiants [Eliz.] §6461, anno 1600);
• ‘Edm. Bregagh M‘Echey, of Tullegolkhorke’ [Éamann Bréagach Mac an Chaoich], i.e., lying/deceitful Éamann Bréagach Mac an Chaoich , of ‘Tullegolkhorke’ [defunct], par. Iniskeen, Co. Cavan (Fiants §4908, anno 1586). (Mac an Chaoich was the name of the main branch of Muintir Raghallaigh (the O’Reillys) in southeast Co. Cavan (cf. #380); they gave their name to the barony of Clankee / Clann Chaoich , #11).

The words bréagach ‘lying’ and bradach ‘thieving’ have a range of meanings and, of course, are not confined to personal epithets. A cow that wanders off its own land and interests itself in the crops of a neighbouring farmer, for instance, is a bó bhradach ‘trespassing cow’; bradach can also mean ‘obtained unjustly, stolen’ and – trespassing into the territory of bréagach – ‘false’ (see Dinneen, Ó Dónaill s.v.). In placenames, particularly those referring to topographical features, the sense these words convey is that the places in question are in some way unreliable, deceptive or even dangerous (compare Eng. treacherous conditions). The late Fiachra Mac Gabhann was no doubt correct in translating Moneenbradagh / An Móinín Bradach (logainm.ie #35707) in Co. Mayo as ‘the dangerous (little) bogland’ (Logainmneacha Mhaigh Eo V, p. 540). Note also that Portaghbradagh (logainm.ie #44765) in Co. Sligo was described in the 17th century as containing ‘Red Shaking Bog’ (Down Survey [1654], bar. Tireragh), whence its Irish name An Portach Bradach , ‘the dangerous peat bog’. This is also the most likely sense of bradach intended in the case of Bolabradda / An Bhuaile Bhradach (logainm.ie #52877), Co. Wexford, where the alluvial soil along the Inch River – suggesting historical overflowing – would have remained soft underfoot long after the surrounding ground had dried enough for cattle to be introduced (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV, p. 555).

Just like An Bhuaile Bhradach in Co. Wexford, there is a significant patch of alluvial soil in the townland of An Baile Bradach / Balbradagh (logainm.ie #38613) in Cp. Meath, and perhaps the element bradach in this placename is linked to that area remaining soft and muddy after the surrounding ground has long since become safe for cattle. In light of the generic baile ‘town(land)’, however, it is possible that bradach here is the substantivized adjective meaning ‘thief, plunderer’, and that the sense intended is Baile Bradach , ‘town(land) of (the) thieves’. Close analysis of the landscape and soil in other ambiguously named places, such as Boherbraddagh / Bóthar Bradach (logainm.ie #32035) in Co. Limerick (“thieving road / road of thieves” in Logainmneacha na hÉireann I, lch. 73), might throw some light on which meaning is more likely. Sometimes the topography seems to clearly indicate peril, as in the names of Glenbradagh / Gleann Bradach (logainm.ie #12300), a particularly steep-sided valley in Co. Cork, and An Méile Bradach (logainm.ie #1396731), a cluster of rocks off the coast of Na hArlanna in the Donegal Gaeltacht.

The word bréagach ‘lying, deceitful’ could also convey a sense of ‘dangerously deceptive, treacherous’. Parts of the townland of Ballybregagh / An Bhuaile Bhréagach (logainm.ie #52339) in Co. Wexford, for example, would remain unsuitable for cattle even after quite a long period of dry weather (see Logainmnneacha na hÉireann IV, p. 239). Bréagach in river-names warns of flash flooding or other deceptive behaviour, e.g. Breagagh / An Bhréagach , ‘the treacherous (river)’ in Cos. Tipperary (logainm.ie #116103) and Kilkenny (logainm.ie #116566) and the smaller Srahanbregach / An Sruthán Bréagach , ‘the false(?) stream’ (logainm.ie #41847) in Co. Offaly. (O’Donovan said that the river Breagagh / An Bhréagach in his native county of Kilkenny was “but a mere streamlet” in the summer, until there was an unexpected cloudburst over the mountains, whereupon “the little runnel is suddenly swelled to such a height that it often sweeps away men and cattle” LSO (Donegal [sic]) p.31 (1835).)

In other placenames, however, it is clear that bréagach did not have treacherous or dangerous connotations. As mentioned before in these notes, many geographical features are figuratively named from their appearance from a certain angle, giving rise to some very imaginative back-stories in folk etymology. (We find a nice subversion of the usual placename-etymologizing in the 9th-century tale Fionaíl Rónáin ‘the kin-slaying committed by Rónán’ (Mid.Ir. Fingal Rónáin). An important event in the story takes place near some stone cairns with the wonderful name Ba Aoife , ‘the cows of Aoife’. Rather surprisingly, the narrator does not attempt any imaginative analysis, stating matter-of-factly: “Ba Aoife ‘the cows of Aoife’ are stones on the side of the mountain. They look like white cows from afar.” [Bae Aífi .i. clocha filet la tóeb int ṡléibe. It cosmaile fri bú finna do chéin.] The author was merely keeping his powder dry: the plot takes a tragic turn when a character makes an untimely metaphorical reference to the cairns as ‘cows’. No spoilers! [Cf. FSÁG s.nn. Baoi Aoife, Bun Aoife.]) In any case, there are a number of placenames such as Farbreaga / An Fear Bréige (logainm.ie #55861) in Co. Wicklow (bréige, the genitive of the noun bréag ‘falsehood’, used as an adjective meaning ‘false’) and An Fear Bréagach (logainm.ie #1418649) in the south Kerry Gaeltacht (‘Cloch mhór ard, cheapfá gur fear atá ann’ 1969) which refer to stones resembling a human figure from a distance: both names can be translated as ‘the false man’. A reminder that truth is often only a matter of perspective. More examples next week!

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Clann Chaoich/Clankee
• Inis Caoin/Enniskeen
• Gleann Bradach/Glenbradagh
• Bóthar Bradach/Boherbraddagh
• An Móinín Bradach/Moneenbradagh
• An Baile Bradach/Balbradagh
• An Sruthán Bréagach/Srahanbregagh
• An Portach Bradach/Portaghbradagh
• An Bhuaile Bhradach/Bolabradda
• An Fear Bréige/Farbreaga
• An Bhréagach/Breagagh River
• An Bhréagach/River Breagagh