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Research into placenames
Much
work is going on into placenames in Ireland. The Townlands in Ulster
publication (Local history Studies, Crawford,W.H. and Foy,R.H. 1998) lays
out a framework for the study of townlands and emphasises the importance
of maps, valuation records and other printed sources in tracing the evolution
of places in Ulster. They perceive townland names and even townlands themselves
to be under threat and fear the loss of such a rich historical record. The
Northern Ireland Placename project has its origins in a commission
for the Department of Celtic by Department of Environment in Northern Ireland
in 1987. In the series Place-names of Northern Ireland they use a
technique of gathering early spellings from printed sources in Latin, Irish
and English combined with field-based research. The earliest records are
in Irish or in Latin and date from about 1450 years ago. The 17th Century
plantation may have swept away some placenames but also leaves us with considerable
records of those. Some records have been lost in fires in the Irish public
records - first in 1711 and later in the Four
Courts during the Irish Civil War in 1922. Maps and other printed sources
are also consulted. Often these allow the authors of the series to identify
townland names with much more accuracy than was available to O'Donovan for
example in the early 19th Century. The focus is particularly on townlands
as they are unique to Ireland, ut the names of other land areas, natural
and built features are also recognised as important.
Some
work in the Republic of Ireland is being done though official channels such
as the Placenames Commission and the Placenames Branch, the
Government Department responsible for researching and verifying placenames
in Ireland. Others such as the Cork and Kerry Placenames Survey are
set up by individuals. This survey was established by Dr Eamon Lankford
in 1996 to collect placenames and preserve the history and heritage that
they represent "before they are lost forever". The strategy is
well thought out. Field maps of a townland are distributed through the school
system and made available to parents and grandparents. All places with names
are indicated on the maps and this information is supplemented with surveys
by graduates during the summer months. Dr Lankford believes that this methodology
improves on that used by the Ordnance Survey in the 1830s and 1840s when
the surveyorsoften relied on Protestant clergy and other non-locals for
their placename information. He notes in the article "Collecting all
the placenames under the sun" (Irish Times 14.2.03) "In the 1840s
just three names were were collected by the OS in the survey of Currahys
in the Muskerry Gaeltacht. In the Lankford survey 160 years later, 260 names
had been collected." The names of field boundaries, rocks, hill slopes,
inlets, submerged rocks and so on are being collected. As Mr O Cuiv, Minister
for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in the Republic of Ireland says,
placenames "...tell us so much about ourselves, our heritage and our
culture". They must not be allowed to decline.
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