ply the word to the situation of Ireland with regard to Bri- 

 tain and the lower parts of Gaul and Germany, which, he 

 says, ' was only relative to others, and not to them who were 

 the inhabitants/ He concludes with a new definition, that Eirin 

 is a contraction of I-iarainn or I-eriri, compounded of i, an island, 

 and iarun, iron. 



In asserting that iar ' does not signify the west, but relative- 

 ly to the position of persons facing toward the east' ; and that 

 ' if a person turns his face toward any other point, the word 

 iar is applied to what is behind his back, even when it is 

 turned to the east ;' this author contradicts himself, for under the 

 word iar we find it signifies after, back, backward, and also the 

 west. In exemplification he adds iar-mumhan, west Munster ; 

 on iarthar, from the west ; a word compounded of iar the west 

 and tar for tir, a country. In another part of his dictionary 

 I also find iar-ghaoth, the west wind. Hence we may infer that 

 the word was always used in two senses ; one signifying the west ; 

 the other, behind or backward. His own definition is much more 

 exceptionable, for iron was not in use among the first settlers in 

 Ireland : if it were, they would not have substituted those oblong 

 stone hammers, which, among other mines, have been found in 

 those of copper at Killarney. Neither is it likely, that, when the 

 name was first applied, they were acquainted with iron in the 

 state of oxide, nor with furnaces adapted to produce a heat suf- 

 ficiently intense to smelt it. 



In corroboration of Camden's definition I beg leave to add, 

 that no name could be more applicable to Ireland, when first 

 discovered, than Eire, or Eirin, if derived, as it seems to be, from 

 iar the west^ and i, y, or in an island. It would thus signify, by way 



