April 26. 

 Rev. H. LLOYD, D.D., V.P., in the Cliair. 



Mr. George Downes read a paper " On the Norse Geo- 

 graphy of Ancient Ireland." The earlier part consisted 

 of remarks on an " Essay on the earliest Expeditions from 

 the North to Ireland," and on a small Map of Ireland accom- 

 panying it, as published in the Annals and Memoirs of the 

 Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries. 



The author began by adverting to the two provincial 

 names on the map—Ulaztir (Ulster), and Kunndktir (Con- 

 naught), — and to two names of districts in Leinster — Dyflinar- 

 skiri, or Dublinshire, and Kunnjdttaborg (a part of Meath), 

 He argued that the local name in Johnstone's edition of 

 Lodbroc's Death-Song, translated " Leinster's," more pro- 

 bably belongs to Lambay, the Aifxviog of Ptolemy, support- 

 ing his argument also by a geographical consideration. — He 

 next proceeded to the estuaries — Jollduhlaup, supposed to 

 be Lough Swilly ; and tJlfrekufjor^r, or Ulfhelsfjor^r, sup- 

 posed to be either Lough Foyle or Carlingford Bay, but 

 perhaps an English locality, and, if so, that arm of More- 

 cambe Bay which runs up to Ulverstone. — The town 

 Dyjlin he stated to be evidently a Norse adaptation of the 

 Irish name of Dublin; Ve'SraJjor'Sr, or Waterford, to be 

 undoubtedly Norse, adducing its various derivations, and 

 giving the preference to ve'Sr "weather," and ^or'Si- "bay;" 

 and Hlimrek, or Limerick, to be probably a Norse adaptation 

 of the Irish name Luimneach, — notwithstanding its consisting 

 of two Norse words, meaning " branch" and "district," and 

 the resemblance between the Lower Shannon and the Lim- 

 fiord, or " branching bay," in Denmark. Kunnjdttaborg, or 

 Kantaraborg, given in the Antiquttates Celto-Scandicpe as 

 Kunnaktirborg, and (in the genitive form) Kantaraborgar — 

 the place of Brian Boru's nuptials with Kormloda, or Gorm- 



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