Date: 08/08/2024

With the diminishing hope that the rain might stay away we move grudgingly from the trá “strand, beach” and cladach “shore, rocky foreshore” from recent weeks to look at a couple of other toponymic elements that generally refer to places beside the sea. The Modern Irish word muirbheach means “level stretch of sandy land along sea-shore, links” (FGB s.v. muirbheach). Donnchadh Ó Corráin has suggested the etymology muir “sea” + -bach “breaking” (from Old Irish bongaid), meaning “sea-breach” (‘Old Norse place names II: Muirbech, Smjǫrvík’, Peritia 11 (1997)). Along with its variant murbhach (with non-palatal or broad -rbh-) this element occurs in a number of townland names around the country, with an interesting variety of local Irish pronunciations.
It is found as Murroogh/Muirbheach (logainm.ie #18664) near Galway City, as Murvey/Muirbhigh (logainm.ie #18355) in west County Galway and as Murrevagh/Muirbheach (logainm.ie #37483) in County Mayo. Although situated inland, Murragh (logainm.ie #42219) in County Offaly also appears to be from Muirbheach, (cf. ‘Murriogh’ (1828), with the remarkable modern anglicized pronunciation /muˈru:/ (1985) — as if Muroo with stress on the second syllable). Interestingly it was noted during the Ordnance Survey in 1837 that this townland ‘in the neighbourhood of the river [was] subject to floods’, a characteristic which may have been considered similar to a muirbheach “links”.
Muirbheach is also well-attested as murbhach (i.e. a version with a non-palatal (broad) -rbh-), the form that occurs in Murbhach, the origin of the townland names Murvagh Lower(logainm.ie #13908) and Murvagh Upper Glebe (logainm.ie #13909) on the coast south of Donegal Town. In that case, the broad cluster -rbh- was apparently locally pronounced as /-rv-/, but we seem to have examples of the same form in which -rbh- /-rv-/ developed to /-r-/ at an early stage. Take for instance the townland name Murragh (logainm.ie #16751) in north County Dublin, which also appears to derive from Murbhach. That example is situated far inland, however, and although a small stream runs through the townland, it seems to contain no feature which might suggest suggest a links or foreshore-type environment. The same might initially be thought of Ballinamorragh/Baile na Murbhach(logainm.ie #53687) in County Wexford, which lies some distance from the sea. However, Ballinamorragh was in fact situated on the coast until the reclamation of the adjoining slob in the nineteenth century (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann VI: Townland Names of Co. Wexford, p. 176). Therefore the name can readily be translated as “the town(land) of (at) the level stretches of sandy land along the seashore” (ibid.).
One common variant Irish form of muirbheach, namely muiríoch, arose due to the loss of the palatal (slendar) internal -bh-, in many southern dialects (as if via muiribheach with epenthetic vowel). Thus we have Murreagh/An Mhuiríoch “the level stretch of sandy land along sea-shore, links” (logainm.ie #8437) iin County Cork, along with two examples in County Kerry — one near Waterville (logainm.ie #22261 and the other a well-known destination in the Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne #22687).The latter example from Kerry is situated on Cuan Ard na Caithne (from Ard na Caithne “the height of the arbutus, wild strawberry” (#22598)). In fact, it has been suggested that Smerwick Harbour — the name used in English to refer to Cuan Ard na Caithne — is not a Norse coinage containing vík “bay” as might first be presumed, but rather a Norse folk etymology based on the Middle Irish pronunciation of this Muiríoch < Mid. Ir. Muirbech (see Ó Corráin 1997). In Leinster, the area known in English as the Murragh (logainm.ie #1413200) on the coast immediately north of Wicklow Town also seems derives its name from a similar realization of muirbheach in the local dialect (‘the Murrioghe’ (1606), ‘the Morieight’ (1619) → ‘the Murrow’ (1726)).
Another local variant is muiriúch (as if via muireabhach with epenthetic vowel and broad -bh-). A pronunciation similar to this was recorded by Placenames Branch researchers in Murroogh/Muirbheach (logainm.ie #18664) near Galway City (mentioned above), in the 1970s — /(əɴ)ˈmɪrʹuːx/, with stress on the first syllable. The last native Irish speakers of the Burren, County Clare, had another distinctive pronunciation when interviewed in 1985: they pronounced the district name Murroogh/Muiriúch “level stretch of sandy land along sea-shore, links” (logainm.ie #1420406) in north County Clare as /(əɴ)mʹəˈrʹuːx/, with stress on the second syllable. This district gave name to the townlands of Murrooghkilly/Muiriúch Cille “level stretch of sandy land along sea-shore of (belonging to) the church” (logainm.ie #5776) and Murrooghtoohy/Muiriúch Tuaithe “level stretch of sandy land along sea-shore of (belonging to) the laity” (logainm.ie #5778).
It is interesting to see how these various pronunciations of muirbheach correlate to the distribution of the phonetically similar word inbhear “grazing” recorded in the Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish Dialects I p. 16. Just as we find with muirbheach, the word inbhear was pronounced in different dialects as if spelled invear, inivear, iníor, iniúr, etc. (The standard Modern Irish spelling is iníor; Pádraig Ó Cearbhaill discusses some finer points on the various pronunciations in ‘Fishery names on the River Shannon’, Éigse 39 (2016).) The broad correlation in distribution might prove useful in placename analysis: for example, because we know that ag inbhear “grazing” was pronounced /ɪgʹˈinʹuːr/ in the dialect of Kilbaha near Loop Head (LASID loc. cit. Point 22), we might give consideration to the possibility that the Irish name of the cliff Aylevaroo/Aill an Mharú (#104013), near Kilrush, originally contained the local dialect form of muirbheach (namely muiriúch, gen. sg. mhuiriúigh).
Finally, we come to the townland and village of Naran/An Fhearthainn(logainm.ie #14607; #1414079) in County Donegal, whose Irish name immediately appears very odd to any Irish speaker — in the modern language, an fhearthainn means simply “the rain” (FGB s.v. fearthainn)! However, given its location at the seashore (it is adjacent to Tramore Strand, another example of Irish An Trá Mhór “the big strand, beach”) it is most likely that the place takes its name from a variant form of feorainn “grassy place; grassy river or shore”, which we have already met as a possible forerunner of Beach/An Trá (logainm.ie #8347) in County Cork — compare the attested variant feorthainn (FGB s.v. feorainn). The word feorainn itself certainly occurs in the townland name Ballyforan/Béal Átha Feorainne “approach to (the) ford of (at) (the) grassy riverside” (logainm.ie #42580) in County Roscommon, which although it is on the brink of the River Suck, is close to the geographical centre of Ireland and very far indeed from the sea! The same element is also found in the names of some minor features on the coastline of County Mayo, e.g. Feorin/An Fheorainn (logainm.ie #1399403; #1399404) and Feorinyeeo Bay/Trá Fheorainn Uí Eo (logainm.ie #114210).

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Muiriúch Cille/Murrooghkilly
• Muiriúch Tuaithe Theas/Murrooghtoohy South
• An Trá/Beach
• An Mhuiríoch/Murreagh
• Murbhach Íochtarach/Murvagh Lower
• /Murvagh Upper Glebe
• An Fhearthainn/Naran
• Muirbhigh/Murvey
• Muirbheach/Murroogh
• An Mhuiríoch/Murreagh
• Ard na Caithne/Smerwick
• An Mhuiríoch/Murreagh
• Muirbheach/Murrevagh
• Muirbheach/Murragh
• Béal Átha Feorainne/Ballyforan
• Baile na Murbhach/Ballinamorragh
• Aill an Mharú/Aylevarroo
• Trá Fheorainn Uí Eo/Feorinyeeo Bay
• An Fheorainn/Feorin
• An Fheorainn/Feorin
• An Mhuiríoch/Murragh
• An Fhearthainn/Naran
• Muiriúch/Murrough

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