It has been said that almost everything connected with Irish history and topography is peculiar. The truth of this can hardly be doubted. If the ancient Irish were a non-Aryan race, the strange phases of their history and the abundance of Irish place names might not strike us as so curious. But it is well known that the Irish are Aryans, and that they are substantially the same people as the ancient Britons were; yet nothing in the history of England or of Great Britain will satisfactorily account for the fewness of place names in the latter country as compared with Ireland. British, but especially English, place names are, in a vast majority of cases, either of Saxon, Norse, or Celtic origin. Their fewness as compared with Irish place names is what strikes a native of Ireland with astonishment. There are probably as many place names in a single Irish province as there are in the whole of England. The townland nomenclature of Ireland is almost unknown in England. The names of all the townlands in Ireland can be seen in the Government Survey of 1871. They number, exclusive of the names of cities, towns, and villages, about 37,000. But it is only the place names that mean human habitations, places erected by men, and where men dwelt, that shall be mentioned here. Let five denominations of place names suffice to show their immensity—namely, ballys, kills, raths, duns and lises. The first means towns or steads; the second, churches or cells; and the three last mean fortified habitations of some kind. Of ballys there are 6700, of kills 3420, of lises 1420, of raths 1300, and of duns 760, making altogether 13,600 place names meaning habitations of some kind. But this is not the half of them! The place names in the subdivisions of townlands are not mentioned at all. There is a parish in Westmeath in which there are three place names beginning with rath, and three with kill, none of which is mentioned in the printed list of townlands. Multitudes of names in which some one of the five words mentioned is included have been translated or changed; just as Ballyboher has been made Booterstown, and Dunleary made Kingstown. Many place names in which bally, kill, dun, rath, and liss occur are not included in the numbers given, for very often the adjective goes before the noun, as in such names as Shanbally, Shankill, Shanlis, Shandun, &c. Taking everything into consideration, it would seem fair to estimate that not more than half the place names formed from the five words that have been mentioned appear in the printed list of Irish townlands; then we have the astounding total of over twenty-seven thousand place names in Ireland formed from five words that mean human habitations.

The only explanation of the astonishing number of ancient place names found in Ireland, as compared with England, seems to be the dense rural population that must have existed in the former country in ancient times. That an enormous percentage of ancient place names have totally faded away owing to the disuse of the Gaelic language, the consolidation of farms, and the decline of population, there cannot be any doubt at all. The puzzle about Irish place names is, if their extraordinary numbers were caused by a more dense population in Ireland than in England—why was Ireland more densely peopled than England in ancient times? The soil of Ireland is hardly more fertile than the soil of England, and the climate of Ireland is not as good, for it is much wetter than that of the larger island. England is nearer to the Continent, and therefore was more easy of access to continental traders. The situation as well as the soil and climate of England were rather more favourable to the growth of a large population than were those of Ireland. It is now generally conceded that the ancient Britons and Irish were of the same race, and spoke a language that was substantially the same. But why should there seem to have been such a difference in the political and social condition of the Irish and the ancient Britons who were their contemporaries? Why are there so comparatively few ancient place names in Great Britain and such an overwhelming number of them in Ireland? Why should Ireland have a history that goes so far back into the dim twilight of the past, and England have no history beyond the time of CÆsar? These are most interesting and important questions, but how can they be answered? It is to be hoped that some future savant will succeed in solving them.

The End.

PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH

Footnotes:

[1] “History of England,” vol. iii., p. 107.

[2] Is iat Tuata De Danaan tucsat leo in FÁl mÓr; i. in lia fis bai i Temraig; di atÁ Mag Fail for Erinn. In ti fo ngÉised saide bari Erenn. “Book of Leinster,” page 9.

[3] Eemoing ni hed fota acht Crist do genemain; is sed ro bris cumachta nan idal. “Book of Leinster,” p. 9.

[4]

Is dar timna in Duleman, is dar
brethir Crist chaingnig
Do cech rig do Gaedelaib do beir
ammus for Laignib.
“Book of Leinster,” p. 43.

[5] In Carsewell’s Gaelic, Giollaeasbuig van duibhne. The v stands for u; the spelling was intended to represent Ua n Duibhne. Ua and O mean the same thing, grandson. The n before Duibhne would not now be used.

[6] This poem is in the “Book of Leinster,” and has not yet been translated.

[7] The eastern part of Ulster.

[8] Duvdaire was Muircheartach’s wife. She was daughter of the King or Chief of Ossory. Rushes in those days served as carpets, as they did in England.

[9] A poetic name for Muircheartach, for his patrimony was on the shores of Loch Foyle.

[10] Moy Breagh, or the fine plain, was the country round Tara. To possess Moy Breagh was the same as to possess Tara, and that was to be chief King. But Tara was as deserted in the time of the Circuit as it is now.

[11] This date is thought to be two years too early, and that 943 was the year in which Muircheartach was killed.

[12] The Eoghanachts were the posterity of Eoghan MÓr, King of Munster in the third century. Eoghanacht meant a people of Munster, descendants of Eoghan; and Connacht, the descendants of Conn,—usually known as Conn of the Hundred Battles, most of which were fought against Eoghan.

[13] Prince of Scotts; this was evidently the great Steward, or mÓr maor of Lennox, who aided the Irish at the battle of Clontarf, and was killed there.

[14] This is an incorrect form of the word. It is Boramha in the most correct ancient manuscripts, and is a word of three syllables—Borava. It means “of the tribute.”

[15] Is hi seo bliadain ra gabad Tuirgeis la Maelseachlainn. Ra baided ar sain hÉ il Loch Uair. “Book of Leinster,” p. 307.

[16] Aed Abrat was Fann’s father.

[17] The old name of what is now called Queenstown Harbour.