Townlands are eponymous with Ireland and the Irish tradition; and with a patchwork of over 62,000 of them covering this island its no wonder why. The aim of this talk will be to explain how and why townlands came into existence and by using local examples show how they can give insight into a forgotten past.
From ancient times geographical names have been central to Irish life, so much so that a whole separate genre of medieval literature was created because of them. Dindshenchas , ‘the lore of notable places’, was created to explain the origins of placenames and the lore concerning the events and characters associated with them. Most of the explanations are highly fanciful and in a large number of cases there are several explanations for the same name, one more absurd than the next. Nevertheless, it shows the importance of these names and their stories to the people who grew up around them. Unfortunately, the common-place nature of townlands means they are often largely overlooked by modern Irish society.
Paul Gibbons
{Read more Here}
