446 



The Irish name is beapba, as written in the Book of Conquests, and 

 in the Annals ; but in the Book of Dinnseanchus, in the Book of Bally- 

 mote, fol. 192, b. a., the name is written beapba, without the latter 

 b being aspirated or pointed ; and the second derivation given of it 

 in that work is as follows : — beapba .1. beap no bip ocup ba .1. balb 

 .1. uipce balb, Bearba, i. e. bear, or bir (i. e. water), and ba, i. e. 

 dumb — namely, " dumb water," which means the silent-flowing river, 

 and is very applicable to the deep and sluggish Barrow. 



Boyne [boirin].— The River Boyne, so minutely described by Sir Wil- 

 liam "Wilde in his work entitled "The Beauties of the Boyne," rises in 

 the county of Kildare, and discharges itself into the Irish Sea. In the 

 Book of Dinnseanchus, originally compiled, it is said, in the 7th cen- 

 tury, the name of the river is accounted for as being that of a woman; 

 but there is also a second derivation given in it, which is as follows : — 

 No ica bo ainm mcppoca ocup pmn-abann pliab ^uaipe ocup bia 

 Compaq mole lp amm boann. Or Bo is the name of the stream, 

 and Finn-abann (or the White River) of Sliabh Guaire (a mountain in 

 the county Cavan), and from their uniting together is the name Boann 

 derived. But perhaps the true derivation is from b6, a cow, and 

 abamn, a river, contracted into boann, and signifying the Cow River, 

 from the large number of cows grazing on the rich lands along the 

 banks of the Boyne. There is a very old legend about the Boyne 

 in our Irish MSS. It is to the effect that a Druid in that locality had a 

 bo pmn, or white cow, which was stolen from him, &c, and that 

 from her the river got its name, i. e. by contracting b6 pinn into 

 bomn. 



Beosnach [bpopnaca]. — In the Book of Conquests, and in the 

 Annals, it is stated that in the reign of Eremon the nine bpopnacha 

 burst forth, and began to flow. Only two of these rivers are now 

 traceable. One of them flows through the King's County, and falls 

 into the Shannon, between the King's County and the county of Tip- 

 perary. The name signifies the Brushwood Rivers. Mr. Long informs 

 me that there is a river bearing this name in the county of Kerry, 

 which falls into the River Feale ; and the land through which it flows 

 being for the most part mountainous, he is of opinion that no other 

 but stunted trees or brushwood would naturally grow there. 



Bunanadan [pioOdn]. — The small River Fioddn gives name to 

 the fair town of Bunanadan, in the barony of Leiney, county of Sligo. 

 The word pioOdn means a pipe, and bun an piobdm, the Irish name 

 of the town, signifies the mouth of the rivulet representing a water- 



PiP e - ' J 



Bundoean [bun-bobapdm], — Bundoran, a watering-place in the 

 barony of Tirhugh, in the county of Donegal, is derived from bun, the 

 mouth of a river, and bobapdm compounded of oobap, water, and dn, 

 a diminutive particle, and thus signifying the mouth of the small 

 river, or Small Water. 



