250 



I have not been able to reduce to any principle, but I shall not dwell 

 on them, as the object of this paper is not so much the examina- 

 tion of individual names, as the development of general laws. 



It very often happens that different Irish words, in consequence of 

 having some resemblance to each other in sound, assume the same form 

 in English. CoiU, a wood, often becomes kill, which is the usual 

 anglicised form of ciU, a church ; and on the other hand, cill is some- 

 times (especially in Munster) made hyle, which is the best and most 

 common English form of colli. In Kilmallock, the first syllable means 

 a church, in Kilmore (a barony in'Cork), it is "a wood; in Kylebeg 

 (parish of Aglishcloghane, Tipperary), Kyle is " church," and in Kyle- 

 brack (parish ofLeitrim, Gal way), " a wood." Aughrim, Aughna- 

 cloy, and Aughanure, all begin with the same syllable Augh; but in 

 the first, it means a horse (eac), in the second a ford (ac), and in 

 the third a field (aca&). Bally is usually the Irish baile, a town or 

 townland, as in Ballymote ; but it is also very frequently the angli- 

 cised representative of t>6al-aca, ford (lit. ford-mouth) as in Bally- 

 shannon. In Kilduff, the last syllable is the Irish t>ub, black, while 

 in Clonduff (a parish in Down), it is t>cnrh, the genitive of bam, 

 an ox. 



In such names as these, it is impossible to determine the etymology 

 with certainty, without knowing either the Irish pronunciation, or the 

 original orthography ; and there are many names of this class whose 

 meanings are still unsettled, in consequence of having lost both history 

 and pronunciation. The fact here established, that the same word 

 often represents different Irish roots, demonstrates the folly of at- 

 tempting to explain the meanings of names merely from their modern 

 forms. 



Notwithstanding the variety of disturbing causes, and the great 

 number of individual names affected by each, only a small proportion 

 of the whole are corrupted, the great majority being, as already stated, 

 anglicised correctly or nearly so. When it is considered that there are 

 more than 60,000 townlands in Ireland, and when to the names of 

 these are added the countless names of rivers, lakes, mountains, &c, 

 it will be seen that even a small fraction of all will form a number large 

 enough to give sufficient play to all the corrupting influences enumerated 

 in these pages. 



There is no part of Irish antiquities in which writers have indulged 

 in so much useless speculation, as in the interpretation of Irish topo- 

 graphical names. Almost all our tourists' hand-books, county histories, 

 topographical dictionaries, &c, abound in etymologies of names. But 

 if we leave out of the question a few topographical descriptive works 

 of a superior class, published within the last few years, it may be safely 

 asserted, that these interpretations are, generally speaking, false and 

 worthless. Instead of seeking out the ancient forms of the names in 

 authentic Irish documents, or ascertaining their proper pronunciation 

 from the people of the localities, and making allowance when necessary 



