227 



position, the names of about 20 townlands in the Northern counties. 

 6. Tamhnach a field (pr. tawnagh) ; in the aspirated forms, Tannagh, 

 Tavnagh, Tawna, &c, it forms, or commences about 147 names; in 

 the unaspirated forms Tamna, and Tamny, about thirty-six names, 

 but only in the Northern counties. 7. Damh, an ox (pr. dauv) ; Deve- 

 nish in Fermanagh (Oaim-imp, ox island) ; Madame, in parish of Kil- 

 maloda, Cork, (TTIag-bam, plain of the oxen). 8. Fidh, a wood (pr. 

 fee) ; Finnea, near Lough Sheelin (pifr-cm-aca, the wood of the ford) ; 

 Fethard (pi6-apt>, high wood), the name of a parish in Wexford, and 

 of a village and parish in Tipperary. 



A remarkable instance of this hardening process occurs in the coun- 

 ties of Dublin, Meath, and Louth, where the Irish word bothar (pr. 

 b5her), a road, is converted into batter. This word " batter" is, or was, 

 well understood in these counties to mean an ancient road. It occurs 

 in early Anglo-Irish documents in the form of bothir, or bothyr, which 

 being, no doubt, pronounced as in English, was easily converted into 

 lottery or batter. It forms a part of the following names : — Batters- 

 town, the name of four townlands in Meath, which were always called 

 in Irish baile-cm-bocaip, i. e., the town of the road; and anglicised by 

 changing bothar to Batter, and translating Baile to town. Batterjohn 

 and Ballybatter are also in Meath. In Louth, near Drogheda, there is 

 a townland called Greenbatter, and another called Yellowbatter, which 

 are called in Irish bocap-^lap, and boccrp-bui&e, having the same 

 meanings as the present names, viz., green road and yellow road. 



"We have also some examples in and around Dublin, one of which 

 is the well-known name of Stonybatter. Long before the city had ex- 

 tended so far, and while Stonybatter was nothing more than a country 

 road, it was — as it still continues to be — the great thoroughfare to Dub- 

 lin from the districts lying west and north-west of the city ; and. it was 

 known by the name of Bothar-na-g-cloch, i. e., the road of the stones, 

 which was changed to the modern equivalent, Stonybatter, or Stony- 

 road. It is stated in the Dinnseanchus that there were anciently five 

 great slighes, or roads, leading from Tara through the country, in five 

 different directions, and that these roads were first opened, or " disco- 

 vered" on the night of the birth of Conn of the Hundred Battles, who 

 began his reign in A. D. 1 23. According to Dr. Petrie, traces of some of 

 these roads remain to the present day, and their localities are still remem- 

 bered in tradition. One of them passed through Dublin by Ratoath, 

 and on towards Bray, and it was called Slighe Cualann, from the name 

 of the district to which it led, viz., Cualann, which extended round 

 Bray and Powerscourt. Under the name of Bealach Duibhlinne (the 

 road, or pass of the [river] Duibhlinn),* it is mentioned in the follow- 

 ing quotation from the " Book of Bights :" — 



" It is prohibited to him (the King of Eire) to go with a host 

 On Monday over the Bealach Duibhlinne." 



* Duibhlinn was originally the name of that part of the Liffey on which the city now 

 stands. 



