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XXVIII. 



REMARKS SrPPLEMEXTARY TO DR. .JOYCE'S PAPER 0^ 

 THE OCCURRENCE OE THE yUMBER TWO IN IRISH 

 PROPER KAMES. By REV. T. OLDEX, D.D. 



' [Read December 10, 1897.] 



It was noticed by Dr. O'Donovan that the word da, two, entered into 

 the composition of many local names, and he gave instances in his 

 Supplement to O'Reilly's Dictionary, I had found many more, and 

 was about to bring the subject under the notice of the Academy when 

 I found that Dr. Joyce had read a paper on it in 1868, which was 

 published in our Proceedings (vol. x., p. 164). I therefore postponed 

 my intention until I had read his essay. I was much interested in it, 

 and particularly in his statement that he was unable to find anything 

 in Irish literature to explain the custom, adding, " Heave to others 

 the task of doing so.'' 



Accepting this as an invitation to a further discussion of the 

 subject, I now venture to offer some observations which may throw 

 light on it. 



The names compounded with da are both local and personal 

 Thus we have Ath da en, "Ford of two birds," which one is apt to 

 think must refer to some local legend. But on further inquiry it is 

 found that two birds are mentioned in so many other places that this 

 explanation will not do. Thus we have Fortress of two birds, Ridge 

 of two birds, Hill of two birds, and so on. Evidently, therefore, we 

 must look for some other explanation. And the difficulty of account- 

 ing for it becomes greater when we find other animals, such as dogs, 

 boars, horses, cranes, and ravens, appearing in twos, and, in fact, quite 

 a zoological collection might be formed with this peculiarity. 



Then there are, as I have said, personal names, such as CoUa-da- 

 crich, Colla of the two countries, a famous warrior of the fourth 

 century. Dr. Joyce had collected 122 instances of these names of 

 both the classes mentioned, and when those I had noted are added, 

 the total is about 226. This large number makes the existence of 

 these names the more striking, and it cannot fail to awaken a desire 

 for information about them. 



