Science Blast 6th Class 2021/22

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The Anglicisation of Irish place-names

The Anglicisation of Irish place-names began in the middle ages and was completed by the Ordinance Survey of the early 19th century. Place-names which had immediate resonance and which were rooted in local topography, history and environment were reduced to meaningless collections of sounds.

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Wicklow

The Irish name for Wicklow is Cill Mhantáin. The story goes that when St. Patrick tried to land his ships in the area, his party was attacked by locals. After that, the area was called ‘Cill Mhantáin’, meaning ‘church of the toothless one’ (an organization that has no power).

The origin of the place name Wicklow. It is of Viking origin and the segment ‘lo’ means meadow or grassland. It has been put forward that the full name translates as ‘Bay of the Meadows.

Others say the name Wicklow probably comes from the old Viking word ‘Vykyngelo’, which means ‘meadow of the Vikings’.

Donegal

Donegal’s name comes from the Irish Dún na nGall, which means “fort of the foreigners”. This name has taken different forms over the years, including Dunnagall and Dunagall.

Dún an nGall, the fort of the strangers or foreigners, is the name given to Donegal town from which the county gets it’s name. There is some confusion as to who these foreigners were, some believe it refers to the Vikings who were reported to be active in the bay of Donegal in the ninth century. Yet others believe that the strangers referred to are Scottish mercenaries who were brought in by the Irish to fight for them in their local and national battles.

Clonakilty

Clonakilty  Irish: Cloich na Coillte, meaning “stone (castle) of the woods”

In the 14th century, a ten-mile strip of fallow woodland called Tuath na gCoillte (the land of the woods) divided the land at Clonakilty Bay. Here was a castle called Cloch na gCoillte(meaning the castle of the woods, from ‘cloch’, the Irish for stone or stone building, and ‘coillte’ meaning woods).

Dublin

It seems that the Irish (Baile Áth Cliath) and English (Dublin) have 2 different origins.

There were two settlements where the modern city stands. The name Dublin derives from the Irish word Dubhlinn, dubh meaning “black,”, and linn “pool”, referring to a dark tidal pool. This tidal pool was located where the River Poddle entered the Liffey, on the site of the castle gardens at the rear of Dublin Castle.

The native Irish referred to this place as Baile Átha Cliath, meaning the ‘Town of the Ford of Hurdles’.

Áth Cliath is a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge. 

This actually described an important river crossing (not too far from the current site of Father Matthew’s Bridge) where four roadways met at a point on the Liffey allowing for low-tide crossing by way of a series of hurdles of interwoven saplings.

Baile Átha Cliath was an early Christian monastery.

Donard

Donard (historically Dunard, from Irish: Dún Ard, meaning “high fort”)

The highest mountain in Wicklow and one of the highest mountains in Ireland, second only to Carrauntoohil in Co. Kerry is Lugnaquilla, which can be accessed near the village of Donard. This mountain has a height of 925 metres.

Hollywood

Cillín Chaoimhín is the Irish name for Hollywood; its translation being Kevin’s Small Church.

Another, older Irish name is Cnoic Rua, literally meaning Red Hill. This may be a reference to the red berries of holly trees on the hills above the village.

Kenmare

An Neidín, meaning “the little nest” as it is nestled in among the mountains of Kerry.

The name Kenmare means Ceann Mara, meaning “head of the sea”, referring to the head of Kenmare Bay.

Ey – Viking word for Island

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Clonmel

Blessington

The English name Blessington, first found in 1667, is a translation based on an error. The original Irish name seems to have been interpreted at the time as Baile Coimín, ‘the town of the blessing’.

The actual meaning of the place name Blessington is ( Baile Coimín) Baile = Town. “town of Comyn”. The word Comyn is after the Archbishop of Dublin John Comyn from 1162 – 1180.

Tallaght

The place-name Tallaght means “plague pit”.

“támh”, meaning plague, and “leacht”, meaning grave.

Parthalon the Greek was one of the early invaders of Ireland. A plague was said to have killed nearly 9,000 of his followers and they were buried in Tallaght.