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, with its Senior research Fellow
Dr Kay Muhr (see the web address below), has its origins in a commission for
the Department of Celtic at Queens' University, Belfast by the Northern Ireland
government's Department of Environment 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, but the names of other land areas, natural and built
features are also recognised as important. Unfortunately, in what can only be seen as cultural vandalism, the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Nelson McCausland, withdrew funding from this project in 2010. The work that has been produced has been of the highest quality. However, the closure of the project has meant the breaking up of a team of individuals committed to this important work, and the loss of their combined expertise, perhaps irretrieveably.
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 surveyors
often 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.
Links
| Northern Ireland Placename project | Society for name studies in Britain and Ireland |
| Ulster Placenames Society (see especially the section 'Celebrating Ulster's Townlands Exhibition') |
