The Bluffer attended two very different talks on logainmeacha - place-names a fortnight ago.
One was the launch of The Townland Atlas of Ulster which details all 16,000 bailte fearainn - townlands in the nine counties of Ulster, a labour of love for author Andrew Kane.
The other was called Múscailte ag an Ghaeilge: understanding Belfast’s street names through translation.
Múscailte ag an Ghaeilge means awakened by the Irish language and translating streetnames does exactly that as Thomas Hughes, a researcher at the Northern Ireland Placename Project (NIPNP) based in Ollscoil na Ríona - Queen’s University.
Types of streets are easy peasy with sráid - a street, ascaill - an avenue, bóthar - road, tiomáint - a drive, clós - a close until you get the more unusual ones like eachlann for mews and so on.
Then the hard bit starts. Thomas told us that he was asked by Micheál Ó Mainnín from Queen’s how he would translate Green Road.
Very simple, you’d think, an Bóthar Glas but “Green” could also be a surname, so it would be Bóthar Mhic Grianna or Bóthar Uí Ghlaisne.
Or even Bóthar na Faiche with faiche meaning a village green sort of affair. Not so easy now, is it? Other problems spring to mind when translating Irish street names.
If a street begins with Kil- does it come from coill meaning a wood or cill a church?
You can find out by going through a lot of seanléarscáileanna - old maps but that of course would be very time consuming especially when, last year, NIPNP were asked to provide 313 street names in West Belfast and in the Gaeltacht Quarter all in one go as part of a Belfast City Council scheme.
Translating Irish sráidainmneacha - streetnames can be straightforward but there are always complications.
For instance, the Indian city of Bombay has been renamed Mumbai. Does this mean that the Irish version of Sráid Bombay the street in Clonard should be Sráid Mumbai?
Nope and it’s the same with Cawnpore and Benares Streets and Kashmir Road.
Tamall beag ó Bhóthar na Seanchille - off the Shankill Road, we have a group of European city names with streets names after Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Riga and Crimea.
Shankill of course is a corruption of seanchill meaning the “old church” first recorded in 1306. This is a perfect example of how knowing Irish can open up a hidden world right here in the place we live in.
In this talk, Thomas says that NIPNP has seen a huge raise in requests for the Irish versions of street names in oirthear Bhéal Feirste - in East Belfast.
This is not a sign of “territory marking” but as Thomas points out a window to look at the history and geography of a place as told via its streetnames.
Some have no rhyme nor reason and it wasn’t until 2009 that you had to provide rationale for a street-name.
♦ You can find out more about streetnames at belfaststreetnames.com and try out @placenamesni on Twitter also known as X.
Cúpla Focal
bailte fearainn (baltcha faran) - townlands
Múscailte ag an Ghaeilge (muscaltcha eg un gaylick) - awakened by the Irish language
Ollscoil na Ríona (ollskcull na reeona) - Queen’s University
sráid (srydge) - a street
ascaill (askil) - an avenue
bóthar (boher) - road
tiomáint (chumantch) - a drive
clós (clawss) - a close
eachlann (akhlaan) - mews
an Bóthar Glas (un boher glas) - Green Road
Bóthar Mhic Grianna or Bóthar Uí Ghlaisne (boher vick greeana/bohr ee glishnya) - Green Road
Bóthar na Faiche (boher ne fwyha) Green Road
coill (cull) - a wood
cill (kil) - a church
seanléarscáileanna (shanlayrscalaalana) - old maps
Sráid Bombay (srydge bumbay) - Bombay Street
Tamall beag ó Bhóthar na Seanchille (tamal big o woher na shankillya) - off the Shankill Road
in oirthear Bhéal Feirste (in iraher vayl farshta) - in East Belfast