Irish Placenames: 2. Diciphering Irish Placenames

The word 'na' between two parts of a name means 'of'. The addition of the 'h' into 'sruthla' also indicate 'of'. This is evident in our site name, DoChara. Cara means friend, the addition of the 'h' makes the friend belong to someone, do chara = your friend, mo chara = my friend.

Once you read on a bit you will find it easy to figure out names beginning or ending in -ard. For example Ardglás=Green hill, Clonard=High pasture. You can easily guess what -glas and Clon- mean from that.

Bally Beal

River mouth

There are places staring in Bally everywhere. To figure out which translation is best for bally- or ballina- often requires local or historical knowledge. Obviously if there is no town or river mouth it helps narrow it down, but even then a town could have built up later. There is still a famous and ancient annual fair in Ballinasloe - presumably that is the crowd referred to.

The features that follow the 'Bun' are usually still very evident: once you have seen the River Mahon, it is no surprise to find a place called Bunmahon.

Forts predate monastic settlement and a caher is a circular stone fort. Since later monastic settlements were sometimes built on the sites of forts the origin can be obscure. The suffux -more is very common in Irish names and always means big. So, what might Ballymore mean? Or Ardmore?

It was the practice in ancient Ireland to cover a grave with a mound of stones. These are the particular type of burial places referred to as Carns

There are a few Cashels in Ireland but the most famous is the Rock of Cashel, which was the home of the Kings of Munster for 900 years prior to it becoming a monastic settlement.

Mostly Castle- or -castle means what you would think and it is often associated with a persons name. Sometimes it can be a challenge to find the remains of the castle though!

There are quite often people's names after the Clon-, the owners of the meadows obviously. Most refer to a feature of the meadow in question, many now lost. In the busy and growing town of Clonmel these days you will need to go to the supermarket for honey. You will still find the graves in Clonfert at the 6th century monastery however.

The Kearney's show up again in Donnycarney, (Kearney's fort) but whether they are the same lot I don't know.

More forts! So far we have had Caher- and Cashel-, now Dun- and Doon-, with Lis- and Rath- yet to come. Most of them are also found at the end of names. There were many of them about in old Ireland and the different words describe different types. Duns were important forts, usually belonging to a king or chieftain.

Ennis-, Inis- and Inch- are pretty much the same thing and which meaning applies is easily discerned from the location of the place.

Glan- also means glen, appearing in some names probably because the it is close to the Irish pronunciation of the work Gleann.

Gort is generally a better class of field, ie an arable one where corn or oats were grown.

The three Aran Island, Inishmore, Inishmaan and Inisheer, translate as Big Island, Middle Island and Eastern Island respectively. Suitably unfussy names for the homes of people not given to fripperies.

Signposts reading Kill on the main road from Dublin to the South can startle visitors - not the usual advice given to road users! It is often very difficult to decide if a Kil- or Kill- name refers to a church or a wood, especially as these names occur so commonly and trees and churches tend to cohabit many locations.

Kin- usually refers to some feature of the landscape - a headland, a promontory or the top of a hill. However in one case, Kinitty (Coinn Eitigh) or "the head of Eitach" it commemorates the burial place of the head of the unfortunate Eitach, an early Irish princess.

The size of the hill is sometimes specified, as in Knockeen, the little hill, and it can also occur at the end of names, like Castleknock

Letter in a name suggests a wet hill, either a boggy one or one with a stream on it.

The name ending -ure, is quite common. Another version of it is -new, a phonetic rendering of an ure or "the Yew", as in Newry which means the Yew Tree. Mostly though New at the start of a name means what it seems to.

The town officially known as Muine Bheag (Small bog) in Co Carlow was given that name to replace its original English name at the founding of the Irish state. Previously it was called Bagenaltown, named for Walter Bagenal, an English landowner who founded the town in the 18th century. In spite of the passage of almost 80 years and the fact the Muine Bheag is the name that appears on maps, signposts, train timetables etc, the town is invariably referred to locally as Bagenelstown. Perhaps if they had come up with a more attractive Irish name it would have caught on.

The original Magh- is also found in several names, such as Magheraboy (Yellow Plain). Moy can be at the end of a name, as in Fermoy (Mainistir Fhearr Maí), the town of the men of the plain and Galmoy (Gheall Muí), the stony plain.

Muck can also be at the end of a name where it means the same thing, as in Rosmuck, the headland of pigs.

The -owen that occurs at the end of Inishowen does not refer to that island's undeniable loveliness. Instead it translates as Inis Eoghain or Owen's Island.

Another fort, though very often this one refers to a monestery. It is probable that many of these were built close to forts or even occupied abandoned forts. Unless an obvious fort or an ecclesiastical settlement is evident in the area it is hard to discern the history of these names.

Visitors using Dublin's bus system are often puzzled by the numerous busses whose signs declare that they are headed for An Lár, a destination that appears on no map. Take any of those busses and you will be safely delivered to the city centre.

According to legend Sleivenamon is so named because of a race to its summit undertaken by a band of doughty women in an effort to win the hand in marriage of Fionn Mac Cumaill (Finn McCool), a sort of early Irish superhero.

The tober here is a natural well or spring - not the sort into which nursery rhyme villain little Tommy Thin deposited his feline friend.