Place names in Ireland are famous for their lyrical nature. Names like Skibbereen, Oranmore, and Mullingar roll off the tongue. Truth be told, however, most names are the anglicized versions used by the invading hoards who took over the place during the previous millennium. These were phonetic misinterpretations of Irish-Gaelic place names. Tiobraid Árann (pronounced “Choh-Broad-Awe-run”), for example, is the Irish for ‘Well of Arra’, and today is Tipperary. Skull in County Cork is the anglo version of Scoil, meaning school. There are, of course, many names that were foisted on the Irish by past invaders. Many of these are typically English in their profound creativity and expressiveness. Newtown, for example. There are twenty-one Newtowns in Ireland.
Regardless of their origin, most sound beautiful to us, some run-O-the-mill, and still others have struck us as comical, a bit bawdy (e.g. St. Bridgid’s Upper Place, Galway City), and even down-right odd. Take no offense, Irish friends, for this comes from a man born and raised in a town called Shakopee. In no particular order, here is a partial list of our favorite town and village names encountered on our many, many miles on the road:
Regardless of their origin, most sound beautiful to us, some run-O-the-mill, and still others have struck us as comical, a bit bawdy (e.g. St. Bridgid’s Upper Place, Galway City), and even down-right odd. Take no offense, Irish friends, for this comes from a man born and raised in a town called Shakopee. In no particular order, here is a partial list of our favorite town and village names encountered on our many, many miles on the road:
Knockananna (Wicklow)
Kill (Galway)
Kilreekill (Galway) – A few miles down the road from Kill
Ballylickey (Cork)*
Castleisland (Kerry) - No castle; no island
Sandholes (Tyrone)
Cool (Waterford)
Dripsey (Cork)
The Butts (Carlow)
Emo (Laois)
Dingle (Kerry)
Horse and Jockey (Tipperary)
Gweedore (Donegal)
Hackball’s Cross (Louth)
Clash (Tipperary)
Ballinmuck (Longford)*
Killinaboy (Clare)
Twomileborris (Tipperary)
Bastardstown (Wexford)
Clones (Cavan)
Leperstown (Waterford)
Money More (Donegal)
Knockalunkard (Clare)
Oola (Limerick)
Ballymartin (Down) – A baseball joke for me da.
Termonfeckin (Louth) – Suffixed by Ireland’s favorite expletive
Torque (West Meath)
Rascalstreet (Cork) – We’ve considered leaving Theo here.
Here's a happy tune of the day by the recently departed Ronnie Drew.
*Sue takes no responsibility for the placement of these names in the list.
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