Below is paraphrased (and a little extended) from the general introduction in the Place-names of Northern Ireland series published by the Northern Ireland Place-name Project, Department of Celtic, Queen’s University Belfast
Earliest place names are found in mainly Irish language material, sometimes in Latin, from 7th or 8th centuries. This is them written for the first time - they are much older than that. The Irish Annals, started about 550AD, had many place names particularly of tribes, settlements and topographical features. Some of the legends recorded in the Annals give explanations of place names. For example, the triumphal charge around Ireland of the Brown Bull at the end of the Tain Bo Cuillaigne is said to have generated many names. The townland/region of Athlone or Áth Luain was named from the loins (luan) of the White-horned bull that the Brown Bull killed there. Some must be very ancient. A number relate to Maeve, who originated as a Mother Earth fertility god. There is Ballypitmaeve, close to Glenavy in Co.Antrim, for instance, where the fertility reference is very clear. We cannot know how old townland names are, but it is clear that they are very ancient, and they were present, and probably already very old when written records began in Ireland. Incidentally, it is ironic that it took the Plantation in the 17th Century to gather the names in a systematic way. It is also curious that, while Sir William Petty, who surveyed much of Ireland, said that Irish place names were ‘uncouth and unintelligible’ and that ‘where they cannot be abolished’, they should be translated into English, the planters in most cases retained the original names. > On 15 Aug 2016, at 19:14, Killian Driscoll <killiandrisc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 15 August 2016 at 20:01, Killian Driscoll <killiandrisc...@gmail.com > <mailto:killiandrisc...@gmail.com>> > wrote: > >> On 15 August 2016 at 19:17, Rory McCann <r...@technomancy.org> wrote: >> >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >>> Hash: SHA1 >>> >>> Hiya, >>> >>> As yous know, myself and Dave are doing a talk about townlands at the >>> global OSM conferences, State of the Map, in Brussels in September. >>> >>> Can anyone tell me more about the history of townlands? Something nice >>> to add to a slide? >>> >> >> See this which talks about boundaries - Baronies etc (you could say the >> townlands line up with the baronies....) - based from the Iron Age >> https://www.academia.edu/3206604/Kingship_and_ >> Sacrifice_Iron_Age_Bog_Bodies_and_Boundaries if you Google the bog bodies >> in images you should get some you can use >> > > This pdf talks a bit about the history and the naming in the 19C etc > Landscape representation: Place and identity in nineteenth-century ordnance > survey maps of *Ireland* > <http://www.academia.edu/download/15820198/20110506220925888.pdf#page=76 > <http://www.academia.edu/download/15820198/20110506220925888.pdf#page=76>> > A Smith - Landscape, Memory and *History*, Pluto Press: London, 2003 - > academia.edu <http://academia.edu/> > >> >> >> >> >>> I've heard that townlands were mentioned in the Táin Bó Cúailnge. Can >>> anyone tell me more about this? >>> >>> I looked at [the scans of the Lebor na hUidre (Book of the Dun >>> Cow)](https://www.isos.dias.ie/master.html?https://www.isos. >>> dias.ie/libraries/RIA/RIA_MS_23_E_25/english/index.html? >>> ref=http://www.isos.dias.ie/libraries/RIA/english/ria_menu.html?ref=), >>> is anyone able to point to a word on a page and say "This is townland >>> X in Co. Whatever". (I tried it myself, but er, it's Old Irish). It >>> would impress to the Americans & other Europeans that the townlands >>> are ancient, and a part of our history, heritage and culture. We >>> didn't spend all these years mapping them just cause. >>> >>> Any hints? >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >>> Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux) >>> >>> iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXsfkoAAoJEOrWdmeZivv2NkoH/2dD/XUWA/3EDX/t04G4C+r+ >>> FYzLmLgkGIplClf7w1Ux0wB/6ZYgtht6dvZ8DQvRaG6YxbREZXA40HLfcsLoSru2 >>> 1/eAOZeEReft7oQjugsZs+uPUNzX01PZ4bk7GTZ12/bfCDwcdAX8lAJhwIGl+Lf2 >>> ZWKaVCNq5UmCZtUJvTs/3u5YX3nVrYorjwkQ2+X6/T/Y/jN71kxen1vLrMNJRiQ+ >>> 7oEAesQwUT6Vj87mMKJ2Iw3N/6LG6TxwfHSn2etF7Syb4geOV/K6kjPblcQ1usQ5 >>> PBSB2OB9h5Apav9QyLIq+u/P1NILDOzUJbSAv/qmyMSUBC3IArhw1hohgGum938= >>> =1GX2 >>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Talk-ie mailing list >>> Talk-ie@openstreetmap.org >>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ie >>> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Talk-ie mailing list > Talk-ie@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ie _______________________________________________ Talk-ie mailing list Talk-ie@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ie
