John Creedon - That Place We Call Home: A Journey Through the Place Names of Ireland

Gill Books

Gill Books
Hume Avenue
Park West
Dublin 12
www.gillbooks.ie

Gill Books is an imprint of M.H. Gill and Co.

John Creedon 2020
Permission to use lines from Ulster Names by
John Hewitt granted by The John Hewitt Society.

978 07171 89854 (hardback)

978 07171 89861 (ebook)

Designed by Sarah McCoy
Illustrated by Ross Orr
Edited by Tara King
Copyedited by Neil Burkey
Proofread by Emma Dunne

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission of the publishers.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This modest offering is not the definitive book of Irish place names. It is, however, born out of a love of place that was fostered by others.

Id like to acknowledge the encouragement of my English teacher, Humphrey Twomey, and the other kind teachers Ive had along the way. Im indebted to the staff at UCC, in particular all at the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, for providing me with not just the key but an entire bunch of keys to help me unlock the stories within our beautiful logainmneacha.

Thanks to RT, which has been my university campus for over thirty years, for its commitment to Ireland and not just the marketplace. Too many to name, I remember here colleagues who supported and encouraged me when I doubted myself. I toast the long days and the craic I shared with the remarkably talented team at RT Cork. Heres to many more adventures. A huge debt of gratitude is due to our countless contributors, storytellers, listeners and viewers, without whom the work would stop.

Id like to thank the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, especially Dr. Pdraig Cearbhaill, Chief Placenames Officer in the Placenames Branch. Similarly, I am grateful to Dr Frances Kane at the Northern Ireland Place Name Project; all at the National Archives for their invaluable work; Ordnance Survey Ireland for explaining the mechanics of map-making to me; mo chairde ag TG4; Cork City Library; the Heritage Council; and the National Museum of Ireland.

Thanks to Deirdre Nolan, Tara King, Aoibheann Molumby, Avril Cannon and Teresa Daly at Gill Books. I really appreciated the attention to detail and the kindness of the people at Gill.

Thanks to my parents Connie and Siobhn, and to all the old people who have gone before me. I am forever indebted for your legacy: a love of place that fills my heart. To my family and friends, thanks for the laughs and the love. To those who follow on behind, particularly my four daughters: Kate, Martha, Nanci and Meg; and to my grandchildren in Ireland, Australia and Scotland (Lucie, Mollie, Rosie, Ella, Bonnie, Cody and those not yet with us). I wish you love, happiness and a sense of home.

And to my soulmate, Mairad, Im forever grateful to you for your love and support. Heres to the open road and the bowl of Frosties!

BACK TO BREAC

The names of a land show the heart of the race, They move on the tongue like the lilt of a song. You say the name and I see the place

Drumbo, Dungannon, Annalong.

Ulster Names, John Hewitt

Thirty thousand feet over the Sahara on my way to Tanzania, I turn the page of my in-flight magazine and Im startled as it reveals a full-page ad from Filte Ireland, with a green map of Ireland right at the centre. Im ambushed by a somersault of the heart, as if it were a photograph of my own mother that had appeared without warning. That map, that place I call home, stares back at me like a familiar face in an unfamiliar crowd. That surge of recognition and connection fuels an ache to be reunited soon.

Im not the first Irish person abroad, I suspect, to have had a lump in the throat, a knot in the gut or some other physiological reaction to an unexpected sighting of the map of Ireland, the green jersey or even the word Ireland. The very name itself is a thing of great beauty, and I look forward to sharing its evolution with you later in this book.

The savage loves his native shore is a universal principle, but when you add the Irish story of mass emigration, youll better understand why that longing for home has deepened our love of place more than most. One Victorian visitor is said to have quipped that the Irish get homesick even when they are at home. Indeed, its this love of place and language that sees Irish emigrant gatherings the world over belt out ballads that are often little more than lists of place names. Like a mantra, the repetition of these names keeps them alive in the heart of the emigrant and the generations of foreign-born Irish who have inherited this gene.

The place names of Ireland form more than a mere ballad; they create a symphony of names. Peel back the veneer of melody and the meanings of the place names are revealed. Within them lie the clues to understanding the nature of the land of ireann and the people who walked this stage before us. The Land of Robins, Patricks Bed, The Eagles Nest, The Valley of the Mad are surely a call to investigate. From boyhood, Irelands place and field names, and the stories they reveal, have provided nutrition for both mind and soul, as I tramped across the fields to gather home my uncles cows with only a collie for company. These days my area of discovery has widened. As I travel the highways, byways and boreens of Ireland, the old Irish phrase ar bithrn na smaointe returns to me, capturing the mood perfectly. It means daydreaming, or literally, on the little bye-roads of thought.

The subject itself is truly a magnificent one, and certainly one in which you wont regret becoming absorbed. The one thing I would advise when it comes to place names is not to be put off by the Irish language element. Its all about cracking the code, and that code is actually quite simple once you understand a handful of the most commonly used terms, like Cnoc/Knock/Mountain and Lios/Lis/ Fort. Some of the words you probably already know but dont realise it. So give yourself credit. Youre a Gaelic scholar in a cocoon! I trust you will learn more from this book, but if all you know at this point is Baile/Bally/Town and Mr/More/Big, then youre already off to a great start. Welcome to Big Town!

BOHERBOY, COUNTY CORK

Boherboy An Bthar Bu

Bthar Road

Bu Yellow

Boherboy therefore means the yellow road.

Ive had a sort of on-again/off-again/on-again relationship with my native language. As a boy, I went through the primary school years speaking Irish at An Mhainistir Thuaidh (the North Monastery), a huge Christian Brothers campus with primary, secondary and technical schools on site. It catered for over two thousand boys on the predominantly working-class slopes of Cork Citys northside.

I was the youngest of 51 boys in my class, so little surprise that I struggled in most subjects, except amhrnaocht (singing class). I entered the North Monastery as a six-year-old, just as the country prepared to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising of 1916. Boyish patriotism surged through my veins as we marched around the schoolyard in perfect time, belting out battle cries like r s do bheatha bhaile and planning how I could die for Ireland without my mother knowing.