The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-02-09
NAMES OF IRISH PLACES.
STRANGE WORDS WHICH TELL OF OLD
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.


not be uninteresting to extend the list.
Ballina in the County Mayo, the center
of the disturbed district in the extreme
northwest, is written Bel atha an-fheadha
pronounced BeIlahana) in the old writ
ings, and means the fordmouth of the
wood. Fundamentally County Tip
perary, where a tenant who had paid
his rent was murdered the other day,
means the bill of the boys, so called like
many other places of similar name be-
cause in ancient times the young men
used to meet to indulge in games and
dancing, with an occasional fight, after
the labor of the day. Ballindollaghan,
County Roscommon, where sub-inspec-
tor of constabulary was recently commit
ted for murder by a coroner's jury, is
without doubt place to be avoided, for
the name means the town of the dullag-
han. The dullaghan is the most formid
able of the fairy gentry in Ireland. He
carries his head either under his arm or
in his pocket and sometimes by way of
diversion makes fcot-b ball of it, kick
ing it from townland to townland. Pucks-
town, County Louth, is SO called because
it is haunted by pooka, one of the
tribes of Puck. Emily, County Tippar-
airy, is Imlaugh, swamp. One of the
first Irish saints, st. Alone, built a
church on the edge of the lake that once
existed there, and the place has been a
seaiever since. Cullen, County Cork, is
from Cuillion, the holly, and the word
cullion has curious history. On the
Druidic New Years day, when the chief
priest cut the mistetoe from the oak tree,
the Gauls cried "AU GU! Tan neuf,"
hence the festival or custom of the
Grigno'ee which exists in Brittany and
in Lower Canada. Gui is the French
for mistletoe, and gullion looks as if it
| might be corruption of GU Z an 7aeatf.
Kisgonnell, county Tyrone, is an I'M
canny spot, meaning the lis or fort of the
candles. These candles are seen all over
Ireland, and are popularity supposed to
be of fairy origin, but are more probably
the French feur. toilets or will O -the-wisp.
Lisnascreagh means the fort of the
screeching, because there O. nights the
fairies meet to fight, and fighting sereech.
| The peasant knows that when the fairies
make war upon each other in this way
trouble is brewing for poor old Ireland.
| 1t is probable, therefore, that the FAIRIES
are perpetually at war. The Irish names,
and there are thousands of them, in
which the word Ross or Ros appears,
are usually connected with wood. Thus
New Ross, County Wexford, is called in
the old writings Rosmic Tredin, the wood
Of the son of Trun. This has been cor
rupted by the natives into Rose macrone,
and it is said that one Rose Macrone
founded the town. Shillelagh barony
ment of the descendants of Elach. 1t
was famous for it's oak woods, hence an
oak stick came to be known as q shille-
lagh. TamIaght has appeared in the
cable dispatches more than once of late
as the name of townlands where the SUBJ
commissioners of the land court have
reduced rents and inspected farms. 1t
is common name, and appears in the
form of Tallaght or Towlaght or Toulett
Tawlaght. 1t means the monument OF
the plague. The first colonist who set.
tied in ireland was Casar, beautiful
young woman who landed on the coast
of Waterford exactly forty days before
the deluge. So far as is known, the
stream of immigration was suspended
during the food but shortly after the
water subsidized Partition landed with O
band of followers and settled at Tallaght,
near Dublin. Traditions record that
this colony was swept away by an ep-
idemic, 10000 persons perishing in one
week. 1t has been commended, but not
with much success, thet Caius Julius
Caesar was an Irishman and came of the
family of Casair. There is no doubt,
however, if the contentious of some Irish
men ale worth anything, that Coriolanus
was originally bog trotter, Cory Laney
by name, and of course Orion was glar.
ingly Irish.
Tough Finn is so called in tradition
because their Finn, the sister of Fergo-
man, one of the heroes of Finn Mac.
Cumbail, persisted while swimming to
the relief of Fergoman, who had been
attacked by wild boar. Cashel means
a castle. Core, one of the kings of Nuns
ter, erected fort there which became
the center of his domain. Some author
| tiles say that it is derived from Ciss ali
-tribute-rent "a tax like the scrutage
IN early English history, because there
the kings Of Munster receive their rents.
| The no rent programme dates back to
that day, for it is recorded that the sub
chiefs struck against Cores demands and
left him as poor as modern landlord.
He issued no proclamation denouncing
that land league as illegal, but suddenly
fell upon the no rent men and butchered
tfem in cold blood, placing their heads
/ upon the battlements of his estate as a
warning to all and sundry. Core became
SO disguised with his tenantry that he
changed the name from Cashel to
Sheerim, or Fairy Ridge, but after his
death the original was restored. Innum-
cradle names end in ''tinny," which is