Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-10
Near York World.

duA bLAV ERCQAdt CdOAN 0A~ttN"cAA~1 VA tA4O
World are now bristling with Irish words
no less incomprehensible to the I'M
initiated. Bally his, Agha that and Kille-
the-other tumble in delightful confusion.
But every one of these names has a pc
culiar meaning of its own. To begin
with Dublin. In the old annals the name
is written Dulbh-linn, which being in
terpreted means black pool. an admirable
description of the river Liffey at this
day. Phoenix Park is popularity sup.
posed to have obtained its name from the
pillar with the craving of a phoenix
which the Earl of Chesterfield erected
there in 1745, whereas the word is cor
ruption of feenisk, the Irish for a spring.
The spring in this case flows behind the
gate lodge of the Vice Regal grounds
and supplies the Geological Gardens
with water. Cork is from corcach-
a marsh. In the days of st.
Finbar, the patron saint of the
city, the site was huge swamp,
over which the waters of the
river Lee swept in the spring and winter
floods. He built monastery there, which
has long since vanished; but st. Finbar's
brewery, and now st. Finbar's Cattle
dral, rapidly approaching completion.
perpetuate his name A quarter of the
city is still known as The Marsh, and the
native Irish who flock in with their pigs
and butter call the city Carcach. The
word evidently comes from the Latin
c0fc0r. Butteyant, struggling town in
the western part of the county Cork,
was originally Boutez- e7s-G0Gnt-'tPu
forward" the motto of the powerful
Barrymor family which held sway over
town of Mayo, was originally written
Castlebarry, the castle of the Barrys,
who settled there after the English in
vasion. Connemara was the home of
the descendants of Conmac, the son
Of King of Ulster, who were called
the Commencement, re. the progeny of
C0nmac near the sea, to distinguish
them from kinsmen who dwelt further
inland. The Curragh of Kildare,
famous for its horse races and vast mill
tary camp, is currach, race course.
Athlone, on the Shannon, another i'm
pOrtant military station, and commonly
supposed to mark the exact centre of
Ireland, means the ford of Luan, but
history is silent as to Luan's career, save
that he was the son of Levy. Tory
Island, off the Donegal coast, often men
toned in the shipping news, gets its
name from the tors, or tower,like cliffs,
which make it dreaded of mariners
Ballincollig, near Cork, where are stu
ated the government powder mills
against which the cable is always dis.
covering Fenian plots, is in Irish the
town of the boar. By the way, the word
Fenian is a corruption of Fans, or Fini-
ans, who were the followers OF Finn
MacCoole. In the third century, during
the reign of Cormack MacArt, they
were the militia who guarded the throne
the household brigade of those
days. The word shillelagh is from the
word Shiel Elaigh, the descendants of
Elach, who settled in Wicklow. Their
territory was famous for its oak woods,
hence the name given to oak sticks. It
is mistake to think that the blackthorn
is the truly national gade mecum at fairs.
Whisky is a word of Irish extraction.
The Irish word for water is pronounced
iska, and iska. bahia, which has been an
glicized into usquebaugh, means water
of life, equivalent to the French eau de
Cie. The Eaha has been dropped and
iska has become whisky. Ireland's Eye,
in Dublin Bay, ought to read Ireland's
Ey-5. g., Ireland's island Kanturk, in
the county Cork, where the Land League
is extremely active, signifies the hill
of the boar; wild bears abounded
in the early times, and hunt
ing the animal was popular
amusement. Killarney, the shrine
of American tourists, means the church
of the sloes. Knock, in Mayo, where
miracles are being worked at Arch
deacon Cavanaugh's church, is the pure
Irish for hill, although in the native
tongue the word is written Cnoc. The
Fifteen Acres in the Phoenix Park, where
the Dublin garrisons are reviewed and
the constabulary recruits at the Phoenix
depot put through their facings, is a cor
ruption of an Irish word meaning the
green sward, and has no reference to
area. 1t is often enormously called the
Fourteen Acres. A century ago and
even more recently, it was a favorite
duelling ground. and story is told of a
fire eating Dublin attorney who chal-
lenged his man to meet him at five
o'clock in the morning on the Fifteen
AACICS, DO TIC odllC UlOlC VI ICSo
MaynOoth, the seat of the famous col.
lege, means the plain of Nuat, King of
Leinster, and Tuam, the seat Of the see
of John of Tuam and St. Jarlath's Col
lege, is the double sepulchre. Donny-
brook, once renowned in song and story
for its fair and fights, was once Domh-
mach Broc, .. g. st. Broc's Church,
fame of great celebrity. Shandon, to
whose bells Father Mahony dedicated his
beautiful cha7aSO11, is a corruption of
Seandun, fort, and history tells us that
a fortress looked down from the hill
upon the pleasant waters of the Lee
and St. Finbar's chosen people.
Sundays Well, small parish in
the northwestern section of the
city of Cork, means 10 the original
the well of the King of Sunday. D. 3. of
God. In the seventh century St. Col
man, the Irish monk, planted colony
of English monks at place called
Magh-eo, the plain of the yew trees, and
from this the county Mayo derives its
name. Tipperary is named after fam
Gus holy well-in Irish tobar or Upper
which stood upon the site of the town of
Tallaght, where a monster
public meeting was held the other day,
means the grave or monument of the
There is legend that
The Howth colony was destroyed by a
murrain, that 8, 600 men and A, 600 women
persisted in a week, and that they
were buried at Tallaght, five or
six miles from Dublin. Apropos of Irish
colonies, the old bards relate that
colony headed by heroine named Casar
anded forty days before the deluge.
They were doubtless related to the High
and McTavishes, who had a boat of
heir own at the time Of the food. Balla,
IN Mayo, means wall st. Mochua
built one around the holy wells of his
the RUNS of which still exist.
Limerick means bare spot; the word
was originally applied to the naked
banks of the Shannon. Tralee means
he strand of the Lee, small stream
which ran into the sea OF that point, but
which has been filed up. Waterford,
Danish settlement, carries its own mean