244 



Connaught. In Derrynanool in parish of Marshalstown, Cork (t)oipe- 

 na-n-aball, the grove of the apples), the b is not heard, while it is 

 fully sounded in Avalbane, in parish of Clontibret, Monaghan (Gball- 

 bdn, white orchard), and in Killavil, in parish of Kilshalvy, Sligo 

 (Cill-abaiU, the church of the apple tree). 



In certain positions ab is sounded like Eng. eye, in the South ; thus 

 Labap, a [river] fork, is made lyre, and in this form it constitutes the 

 whole or part of more than sixty townland names, nearly all in Munster. 

 More northerly the same word appears as lerr or lear, as in Knocknalear, 

 in parish of Clones, Fermanagh (Cnoc-rm-labap, the hill of the forks), 

 and the river Lerr in Kildare, which would be called Lyre in the south. 

 So Clab, a dyke or mound of clay, is anglicised cly in the South, and 

 claw or cla in the North, and in both forms, enters extensively into 

 names. 



Qb in the termination of words is sounded like oo in Connaught ; 

 thus mabctb, a dog, is anglicised maddoo in Carrownamaddoo, the name 

 of three townlands in Sligo — while it is made vady in Limavady in 

 Deny (Leim-a-mabaig, the dog's leap, which is properly the name of 

 the cataract near the town). 



One of the most distinctly marked provincial peculiarities, so far as 

 names are concerned, is the pronunciation that prevails in Munster, of 

 the final 5, which is sounded there like the English hard g in fiy. 

 Great numbers of local names are influenced by this corruption. Bal- 

 lincollig, near Cork is bcule-cm-cullaig, the town of the boar, and would 

 be better anglicised Ballincully. BalHntannig in parish of Ballinaboy, 

 Cork, is t>aile-cm-c-peanaij5, the town of the fox; and Ballinhassig, 

 same parish, is baile-om-eapaig, the town of the cataract. The present 

 name of the river Maigue in Limerick is formed on the same principle, 

 its Irish name being Turn 5, that is, the river of the plain. The greater 

 number of Munster names ending in g hard, are illustrations of this 

 peculiar pronunciation. 



It is, no doubt, owing to a difference in the way of pronouncing the 

 original Irish words, that Clucnn (an insulated bog meadow), is some- 

 times in modern names made cloon, sometimes clon, and occasionally 

 clone', that "Dun (a fortified residence), is in one place spelt doon, in 

 another dun, and in a third down; that in the neighbourhood of Dublin, 

 Bally is shortened to Bal, in Donegal Rath is often made Bye or Ray, 

 and in Wexford Tober is sometimes changed to Gibber, &c, &c. 



IX. Irish Names with English Plurals. — It is very well known that 

 topographical names are often in the plural number, and this peculia- 

 rity is found in the nomenclature of all countries. Sometimes in trans- 

 ferring foreign names of this kind into English, the original plurals are 

 retained, but much oftener they are rejected, and replaced by English 

 plurals, as in the well-known examples, Thebes and Athens. 



Great numbers of Irish topographical names are in like manner 

 plural in the originals, and there is considerable diversity in angli- 



