The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1889-04-11
GAELIC TRANSACTIONS.
Where the Irish Get Their sJerrsess' and
the scotch Their ..sandies..,

u
the scotch Their ..sandles...
Tonching the now notorious irish
constable. Jeremiah Sullivan, Labou-l
cherc, OF the London Truth, said to a
Hibernian acquaintance: How Is II
that your people who are popularity
supposed not to spend much time read
ing the Scriptures call about hall
their children Jeremiahs or Jerries2
What has made this prophet so popu-'
lar in Ireland?" "Oh, said he, .they
are not Jeremiahs at all; they are
Diarmuids or7Dermonts, called after
the famous Diarmuid O'Duibhne, from
whom half the families in ireland and
Scotland are supposed to be descended.
But the. slender ID OF the Irish gram
marians-i. e.. the D. before 'e' or Il
being sounded something like u,
Diarmuid has come to be considered
the Irish for Jeremiah, and is always
SO translated.
These so-called TRANSACTIONS are as
numerous as they are absurd in both
the Gaelic-speakihg countries. In Ire
bic
Hated !. Daniel y though IN Scotland he
usually is content to Angiicize himself
!" Donald" But on the other hand,
the Scotch translate Angus into
"Aeneas, and Eachann (genitive
Eachain) into !" Hector" See Walter
Scott who makes :. Bas-air son Eachain"
into !" Death for the sake OF Hector"
So .'Alister'' from the most ancient
times has been translated" '.Alexan-
der which, corrupted to SANDY"
and Saunders, has given a nickname
to Hie whole Scotch race. Una" (pro-
snoupced Oonah), which. in spite of its
Latin look, Is a genuine old Irish name,
is now invariably translated '.Winey"
and "Winifred. "Jilh" pronounced
Sheelah) is turned into Julia and
Judy" "Connor." as a Christian
name, is always translated ''Cornc-
Illus" But the funniest ..translation"
Of -all is that OF OsSeweA.
{from some fancied connection
with the Hrish7yerb .'siabhal, !. to walk
now calls himself Walker. Those
'translationsn have arisen partly from
ignorance, partly; from. snobbery and
the desire to appear English, partly
from the difficulty OF getting Gaelic
name pronounced by the Saxon. and
partly from the desifs6 OF Catholic
priests mot ofte1 Gaelic scholars or
aptiquarians) q place the child
-brcsfghs TO them for baptism under the
protection. OF some recognized saint
When the disappearing god-parent
suggests Domhnall, y or !" D;armuid, =
or q" Unah," the priest TRANSLATES"
the name into Daniel, Jeremiah or
Winifred, as the case may be.
So long as the practice OF translation
is confined to Christiup names it does
not much matter. but when O'Mulligan
(OMaolagain) ..trapslatesn himself,
as !he does very frequently, into Bald
win, because l. Maolr means bald, he
obviously lays al very dangerous trap
for the aftereoming ethnologist. who
win certainly take this shame-faced
ND for a bhff Saxon. o Mnlligan.
however, generally speaking, makes a
Frenchman OF himself as Molyneux.
F0sBirn and @ Brian, OF Roseommen and
Wicklow. once content to misspell
themselves O,Beirne4 and O'Byrne
respectively, have now a great fancy
for calling themselves Biron and
Byron; and sometimes DeByron, and
desire to be thought OF Norman origin
Nearly=ali the O'Darcys and MacDar-
cys, of Connaught, who used to humbly
Anglicize Darkey" Qor the Gaelic
sc" is hardy now have assumed the
name and arms OF Darcy from the
well-known Meath family of that name
whose Norman origin is undoubted
MacMullen, by the way, does not seem
to know when to stop. He can't let
his name alone. remember when he
modestly Anglicized himself Mullins.
Now he is Desmoulins or Demoleyne,
God forgive him. Chicago Times.