Date: 14/10/2024

As pointed out last week, in most areas colonized by the Anglo-Normans -- including the so-called "obedient shires" of the Pale -- Gaelic Ireland rebounded quickly and with vigour. While we will frequently refer to the "gaelicization" of the Pale in the context of late medieval placenames, for the most part the process did not involve any physical reconquering of the colonized areas. For a variety of reasons, the Anglo-Norman colony found itself far more dependent on the Gaelic Irish than it had initially envisioned. They soon adopted the language, culture and customs of Gaelic society. (Some Anglo-Norman lords would even invoke native Irish law (Féineachas) when it suited them.) However, wherever the writ of the colony ran, descendants of the early settlers remained the privileged social group, and during the late medieval period landownership in these areas remained largely in their hands. Therefore the gaelicized townland names we will be discussing genuinely reflect gaelicized Anglo-Normans.

In any case, to return specifically to the gaelicization of placenames, we might take as an example the modern townland of Ballindinas (logainm.ie #53825) near Wexford town, an area heavily colonized by the Anglo-Normans. This placename is almost certainly an English coinage, based on the surname Devenish ('person from Devon') introduced by the Anglo-Normans ('Devenston' (1540)). The gaelicized version of the name was Baile an Doimhnisigh 'the town(land) of An Doimhniseach' (cf. 'Ballyndenish al' De[u]e[ni]stowne' (1628)). The historical evidence clearly shows how this Irish version arose. The generic element-ton/-town (< Middle English -tūn) was translated, as usual, as baile. (Note that the Placenames Branch usually explains Irish baile as 'town(land)' in its one-line English translations, in an attempt to acknowledge of the semantic range of the word: see Gregory Toner, Éigse 34 (2004): 25--43.) The qualifying element is a gaelicization of the surname in the form of a substantivized adjective: An Doimhniseach means 'the person surnamed Doimh(i)nis', in which Irish Doimh(i)nis is a phonetic approximation to the underlying Anglo-Norman surname Devenish.
The substantivized adjective (as seen in An Doimhniseach < AN Devenish) was an extremely common way of dealing with Anglo-Norman surnames in gaelicized placenames. However, another method using the basic gaelicized form of the surname was also popular. Take for instance the placename Ballyvisteale/Baile an Mhistéalaigh (logainm.ie #9276) in Co. Cork. This is an example of the first method outlined above, using the substantivized adjectival form An Mistéalach 'the person surnamed Mistéil' (< AN Mitchel). But a separate occurrence of the same placename (as part of a longer name) in Co. Galway shows a different approach: Knockballyvishteal (logainm.ie #21575) represents Cnoc Bhaile Mhistéil 'the hill of the town(land) of Mistéil', which simply uses the basic Irish form of the surname Mistéil (< AN Mitchel).
These types of half-translation -- in which the generic element, -town, is directly translated (as baile) and the surname is adapted phonetically in either of the two ways mentioned -- whether a simple phonetic approximation to the basic surname or the substantivized adjective derived from that form -- account for the vast majority of gaelicizations of the "classic" Anglo-Norman structure surname (+ 's) +* -town/-ton* (< ME tūn). Thus in Co. Meath, where Anglo-Norman settlement was extensive, we find many attested examples of both methods in use in English placenames of exactly the same origin. Take for example Cruicetown (logainm.ie #38747) near Slane which was gaelicized locally as Baile an Chrúisigh 'the town(land) of the person surnamed An Crúiseach' ['the person surnamed Crúis'] < AN de Crues (mod. Cruise), in contrast to Cruicetown (logainm.ie #1845) near Nobber, the evidence for which points to Baile Chrúis 'the town(land) of Crús' (< AN de Crues) as its gaelicized form.
However, sometimes the entire placename was phonetically adapted into Irish. Take for instance the townland name Gaulstown (par. Duleek) (logainm.ie #38399), which contains the Anglo-Norman surname Gall, probably originally referring to Welsh "foreigners" in Norman England. The local Irish form recorded during the Ordnance Survey in Meath in 1836 was not ٭Baile an Ghallaigh 'the town(land) of An Gallach' ['the person surnamed Gall'] as we would anticipate (compare Ballygally/Baile an Ghallaigh (logainm.ie #20764) in Co. Galway), but rather 'Gallastan' [standardized Gallastún] (logainm.ie #38399; see also #37961).  (As an aside, some of the locals don't seem to have been too impressed with the quality of the land in Gaulstown. The following phrase was recorded here during the Ordnance Survey: 'Gallaston na gcrann, baile gann gortach' [Gaulstown of the trees, a wanton barren town(land)] (1836). This is evidently taken from a class of folk-rhyme formerly popular throughout Irish-speaking Ireland in which the characteristics of the townlands of the immediate neighbourhood were compared and contrasted in verse. For a modern example from Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry, see Dáithí de Mórdha, Léachtaí Choilm Cille XLVIII (2018): 48--49; cf. Coiglímis an Tine (2010). It is possible that the Irish phrase 'Uachtar Aird, i lár na tíre' [Oughterard, in the middle of the country], recorded in 1837 in the parish of Oughterard/**Uachtar Aird **(logainm.ie #1216) in northeast Co. Kildare, is a vestige of some similar verse.) 

In any case, what we have in the Irish name Gallastún is a straightforward phonetic approximation of the entire English placename Gaulstown. To be precise, it is based on an earlier form of that English name. The overwhelming tone of the evidence uncovered by the Placenames Branch consistently shows an epenthetic vowel before the English genitive marker -'s in early forms of English placenames throughout the Pale. In the case of Gaulstown, this extra syllable can be seen in early (or conservative) spellings such as 'Gallyston' (c.1540). The gaelicized version of the placename, Gallastún, has clearly been based on this earlier, trisyllabic English form. This is very valuable information, given the dearth of historical records from the 14th and 15th centuries which we mentioned last week, as it potentially provides an additional diagnostic for dating the likely period of gaelicization. Although most of the evidence for the phonetic approximation of entire placenames happens to come from within the Pale and appears to be quite late, further research is under way to throw more light on its true diachronic (related to different time periods) or diatopic (related to different geographical areas) aspects.

Finally, we are of course all familiar with English phonetic approximations of Irish placenames such as Ballymore < An Baile Mór 'the big town(land)'. This has been the most common method employed by English speakers in dealing with Irish placenames since the 12th century, and is often spoken of in terms of English "corruption" of Irish placenames. However, there is mounting evidence to show that this natural linguistic process also worked in the other direction: Irish speakers -- both Gaelic and Anglo-Norman -- could just as easily "corrupt" English placenames!

Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill

• Baile an Mhistéalaigh/Ballyvisteale
• Baile an Ghallaigh/Ballygally
• Cnoc Bhaile Mhistéil/Knockballyvishteal
• Gallastún/Gaulstown
• Gallastún/Gaulstown
• Baile an Doimhnisigh/Ballindinas

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