Clare Island Survey — Place-Names and Family Names. 3 5 



The minute nomenclature of the coast-line is inherited from a time when 

 the business of fishing gave more occupation to the islanders than it does at 

 present. During the years 1890 to 1902, I was accustomed to spend a 

 considerable part of my summer holidays in the middle island of the Aran 

 group in Galway Bay, and had thus an excellent opportunity of closely 

 observing the manner of life of the inhabitants, which must somewhat resemble 

 the former life in Clare Island before recent economic changes had come into 

 operation. That similar changes have not worked out in Aran is probably 

 due to the unfitness of the islands for corn-growing on a commercial scale, 

 and for pastoral existence. The extensive growing of corn for export in places 

 like Clare Island must have operated on habits of life in the same direction as 

 the economic division of labour under modern industrial conditions has 

 affected the working population of manufacturing districts. In highly 

 developing one form of industry it must have induced a degree of atrophy in 

 other forms. The collapse of the staple industry, consequent on the repeal 

 of the Corn Laws, found the rural community unable to restore the varied 

 industrial activities of their former existence. Pasturage, a still simpler 

 pursuit, took the place of corn-growing, but was less productive, and ultimately 

 more than three-fourths of the population disappeared. 



In Inishmaan, the middle island of Aran, these changes did not take place. 

 The area of the island is less than two-thirds of the area of Clare Island, and 

 most of the surface is bare rock. There is no peat, and the islanders have to 

 buy their fuel from Connemara. In 1841 there were seventy-eight families 

 in Inishmaan. When I was visiting it there were over seventy families. Except 

 the school-teachers and their households, the whole population of working age 

 were engaged in a great variety of occupations — fishing, the curing of fish, and 

 the preparation of fishing-apparatus ; even fishing-line, of excellent quality, 

 was made from thread ; there being no safe harbour for sailing-boats, the 

 only boat used was the curach, manipulated with such skill and ease that the 

 boat and the rowers seemed to be parts of one active and highly organized 

 animal ; rock-fishing was also practised ; every suitable patch of ground was 

 cultivated, chiefly for potatoes and rye, the chief use of rye being to supply 

 straw for thatching, and the thatch of the houses was annually renewed. 

 Nearly all the clothing worn by men and women was the product of their 



to mean " [material for] bitter ale." In fact, Meyer quotes a variant reading, which has not the 

 negative, and might be rendered: " It was a grinding for bitter ale thou groundest on Cerball's 

 descendants." In the second stanza, tbe ordinary word corca, now coirce, is used, meaning "oats." 

 The mention of " red wheat " is interesting, as implying that the red and white varieties were both 

 known. " The- great tree" means the monarchical line of Niall of the Nine Hostages. 



The two men were sons of Blathmac, king of Ireland (f 665 or 668), son of Aed Slane, king of 

 Ireland (t 604), son of Diarmait, king of Ireland (t 565 or 572), son of Cerball. 



