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for the usual letter changes, writers of this class, ignoring both autho- 

 rity and analogy, invented original forms that the names never had, 

 and interpreted them, each according to his own fancy, or to lend 

 plausibility to some favourite theory. There are few localities of any 

 note in the whole country, that have not been subjected by one writer 

 or another to conjectural explanations of this kind ; of these it may not 

 be uninstructive nor out of place to subjoin a few examples. 



Bangor (in Down), has been generally supposed to come from Ban- 

 chora, meaning " white choir," which name, Harris states, was derived 

 from the elegance of its lime and stone building. This building was 

 erected_by St. Malachy in the 12th century, and Dr. Reeves remarks 

 on the absurdity of accounting for the name Bangor, which existed in the 

 6th century, by a building which was not erected till the 12th. The 

 true name is becmncoip, which means horns, gables, peaks, or pointed 

 rocks ; and this root, under slightly modified forms, enters frequently 

 into names in different parts of Ireland. Thus Banagher, the name of 

 a town in King's County, and of seven townlands in other counties ; 

 Movanagher in parish of Kilrea, Londonderry ; Drumbanagher in parish 

 of Killevy, Armagh, and several other places. 



Clonmacnoise has been often explained " The retreat of the sons of 

 the noble," a name which it was thought to have received, either be- 

 cause the place was anciently very much frequented by the nobility, 

 or because it was the burial place of so many kings and chieftains. 

 Buffhe proper form of the name, as used kfthe Annals, is Cluain-Mic- 

 Kois, which means " the cloon or insulated meadow of the son of Nos." 



Askeaton in Limerick is made Eas-cead-tinne, in a well-known 

 modern topographical work on Ireland; the writer explains it "The 

 cataract of the hundred fires," and adds, " the fires were probably some 

 way connected with the ritual of the Druids, the ancient Irish Guebres." 

 The name, however, is Eas-Gephtine, which simply means the cataract 

 of Gephtine, some old pagan chief. The cataract is where the Deel 

 falls over a ledge of rocks near the town. I may remark here, that 

 great numbers of these fanciful derivations were invented to prove that 

 the ancient Irish worshipped fire. Balla, in Mayo, is explained by 

 Vallancey " The fire of fires ;" but we are told in the life of St. Mochua, 

 the founder, pablishod by Colgan, that the place, which had previously 

 been called Ros-Dairbhreach, received the name of Balla, from the walls 

 (balla), with which St. Mochua enclosed the wells of his religious 

 establishment. Aghagower, in the same county, Yallancey also ex- 

 plains "Eire of fires;" the original name, however, is Achadh-fobhair, 

 in which, as O'Donovan remarks, there is not a word signifying fire at 

 all, its meaning being " the field of the spring," from a celebrated well, 

 still in existence, and now known by the name of St. Patrick's well. 

 Neither does the present form of the name — Aghagower — mean " Eire 

 of fires," but a very different thing, " the field of the goat." 



Smith in his History of Cork, states that the barony of Kinalmeaky 

 means "the head of the noble root" from cean, head, neal, noble, and 

 meacan, a root. The true form of the name, however, is Cinel-mBece, 



