Powjsk — P 'lace- Names and Antiquities of H.E. Cork. 5 



eighteenth centuries are fast disappearing or have disappeared in Barrymore, 

 and ugly two-story slated dwellings are, thanks presumably to Board of 

 Works plans, taking their place. Perhaps it is not quite fair to associate 

 the ugly, modern houses with destruction of ancient monuments, but it 

 seems a fact that where the new houses are most common, vandalism has 

 been most rampant. Within the whole barony I scarcely remember to have 

 seen a quern-stone, and I can recall but one dresser of pewter. In the 

 neighbouring territory of Decies both the quern-stone and the set of pewter- 

 plates are quite common, though neither quern nor pewter has been in use 

 for half a century ; the objects are preserved for old family associations. 

 Similarly, in Barrymore, I have found scarcely any trace of the Bogha 

 Bride (or custom of plaiting a cross of straw on St. Brigid's Eve) or of 

 other folk-customs prevalent in the Decies. The tally-stick, for account of 

 labourers' wages, is not in use, though the older people remember it, and it 

 still survives in other parts of Co. Cork. Lioses, many of them fine 

 specimens, and in excellent preservation, abound, though hundreds have 

 been levelled iii recent years. Pillar-stones are also very numerous ; so are 

 holy wells, and devotion to the latter is practised throughout the whole 

 barony. An inexplicable phenomenon is the almost total disappearance of 

 ancient church remains. Of the twenty-nine parish churches, and the many 

 connected chapels of post-invasion times, not more, perhaps, than a dozen in 

 all have left any remains ; the others have been literally razed to their 

 foundations. This wholesale clearance, as well as some of the other 

 phenomena, or absence thereof, referred to already. I feel inclined prima 

 facie to attribute largely to the Desmond war and its consequences. Strange 

 that the Cromwellian plantation of the neighbouring counties should have 

 produced results so very much less marked. 



Parish of Akdnageehy. 



Ardnageehy parish, which, on its north side, runs well into the Nagles 

 Mountains, includes a considerable area of wild and rugged country. Con- 

 sequently its local names are of somewhat more than ordinary interest and 

 number. Many of the older people — though few of them speak Irish freely — 

 retain sufficient knowledge of the vernacular to be able to quote the correct 

 forms of the names. The parish is called, in the usual way, from the town- 

 land in which the ancient church and graveyard are situated. An older 

 name was Garthenegaythe,' which may be rendered — " Breezy Garden." Of 

 the pre-Eeformation church, which was a plain oblong in plan — twenty 



'Tax., 1291. 



