Clare Island Survey — Place-Names and Family Names. 3 15 



" No one has heard of a man of Maille's race that was not a mariner." 1 The 

 shape of their territory extending around Clew Bay from point to point (the 

 baronies of Burrish-Oole and Murrisk), broad at ihe seaward ends, but a mere 

 strip of coast at the head of the bay, strongly suggests Clare Island as the 

 headquarters of their maritime domain, and explains the name " Ua Maille's 

 Island," used in the Annals of Ulster (a.d. 1415). About one-fourth of the 

 population of the island are descendants of Maille in the male line. 



The place-names of the seaside were for the most part noted clown in the 

 course of a cruise round the island, beginning with the harbour at the east 

 end and going thence northward, and so round by the west and south and 

 back to the harbour. In making reference to the Ordnance six-inch maps, 

 from which the englished forms of the names, so far as they are given,- are 

 here cited, it will be convenient to follow the same direction. 



The names on the map are here given in italics. 2 



1. Cti6.-|\A, Clare Island. So usually, not 6ibe<sTi Cti^u^. 



2. An Cei1i>, Harbour, lit. " the quay." 



3. An U|aai 5, " the strand," from the Harbour northward, about a quarter 

 mile in length, also named — 



4. UuAij Onij'oe, " [Saint] Brigid's strand." 



5. Le&c UA. Un&j& (pronounced Un&W), " flagstone of the strand," forms 

 the west side of the Harbour. 



6. \,etsc n& mbo, " flagstone of the kine," a low rock surrounded by sand 

 towards the north end of the strand. 



7. An Conn S&nb, " the rugged bend," a rocky point close to the Lace 

 School, once a police barrack, noted " Constab. Bk." on the map. 



8. An Coile&«, 3 " the quarry," on the rocky shore between &n Conn jj&pb 

 and Ce&nn ha Conn&. 



9. Ce&nn na. Cofina., Kinnacorra, "headland of the bend," the most 

 easterly point of the island. Here the divided swell of the Atlantic, 

 sweeping round by north and south, meets again, and a great boulder-beach, 

 V-shaped, raised by the waves, forms the limit of the land. 



10. An Uuinlmn be&g, " the little boulder-beach," is the southern limb of 

 the V. 



11. Uui]\binn tiA ScocAn, " boulder-beach of the pillar-rocks," is the 

 northern limb of the V. It ends northward in large rocks. 



1 Topographical Poem. " The Ui Briuin in their seagoing ships " (Book of Eights, p. 106) must 

 have special reference to the Men of Umhall. 



2 Departures from the normal Connacht pronunciation of the Irish names are specially noted when 

 they occur. 



3 Another form of the word is CoipeAt. Both are derived from the French carrih-e. Many 

 Irish words, often said to he of English origin, show by their pronunciation that they came into Irish 

 from the Freuch of the early feudal colonists. 



