Featured themes 02/03/2026

‘As mad as a March hare’
Gort na nGiorriacha / Harefield
‘the field of the hares’ (logainm.ie #36400)

Date: 02/03/2026

Onset of the month of March frequently brings to mind the hare in countries where English is spoken (Latin lepus; and the Irish subspecies lepus timidus hibernicus), given the common use in that language of the phrase ‘as mad as a March hare’. This is almost exactly mirrored in the Irish idiom chomh mear le giorria Márta, which is particularly apt given that mear can mean not only “mad” and “crazy” in Irish, but also “quick, fast, nimble lively, [and] spirited; hasty, rash, fiery” (FGB s.v. mear).

In the language of the Old and Middle Irish periods (roughly 700 – 950 AD and 950 AD – 1200 AD, respectively) the common word for the hare was míl maige [Mod. Ir. míol maí] “creature of (the) plain”. Unfortunately, we have no unambiguous examples of this phrase in the extant placenames of Ireland. Problematically, the word míol can refer not only to a hare, but to a host of various creatures of all sizes, from a míol mór “whale” to a tiny míol crúbach “crab-louse” and even smaller a míol leapa “bed-bug”. This variation in meaning led the Dictionary of the Irish Language to explain OIr. míl broadly as “an animal, used in [the] wide sense of all the lower creatures, but never of human beings”, and included in the list of animals mentioned is, of course, the hare (eDIL s.v. 1 míl). In any case, given this broad ranges of meanings for míol we often cannot be sure as to what exactly it refers in placenames where it occurs. For example:

Coolmeela or Prospect / An Chúil Mhíolach ‘the nook, recess abound in hares?, midgets?, louse?, creatures’ (logainm.ie #52629) in Co. Wexford;
Aghaville / Áth an Mhíl ‘the ford of the hare?, midge?, louse?, creature?’ (logainm.ie #13177) and Knockaveale / Cnoc an Mhíl ‘the hill of the hare?, etc.’ (logainm.ie #8079) in Co. Cork;
Ros an Mhíl ‘the headland of the hare?, etc., possibly whale?’ (logainm.ie #18696) and Glennaveel / Gleann an Mhíl ‘the valley of the hare?, midget?, louse?, creature?’ (logainm.ie #21315) in Co. Galway;
Belville / Béal Átha an Mhíl ‘the mouth of (approach to) the ford of the hare?, midget?, louse?, creature?’ (logainm.ie # 44831) in Co. Sligo;
Boleymeelagh / An Bhuaile Mhíolach ‘the boley abounding in hares?, midgets?, louse?, creatures’ (logainm.ie #34998) in Co. Mayo;
Curraghmeelagh / An Currach Míolach “the marsh abounding in hares?, midgets?, louse, creatures?” (logainm.ie #42165) in Co. Offaly.

Thankfully, there is no such ambiguity in the Modern Irish word for a hare, namely giorria (from a compound giorr ‘short’ + fiadh ‘deer’ (Early Modern Irish giorrfhiadh); see Dinneen s.vv. gearrfhiadh; girrfhiadh). Thus, where we find giorria in townland and other placenames we can be sure of its meaning, and for those with an interest in Irish morphology there also seems to quite some variation in the genitive plural versions of the word as reflected in the evidence for the placenames in question. Take for example:

Monanagirr / Muine na nGiorria ‘the thicket of the hares’ (logainm.ie #39373) in Co. Monaghan;
Gort na nGiorriacha ‘the field of the hares’ (logainm.ie #36400) which has been translated as Harefield in Co. Mayo;
Maulnagirra / Meall na nGiorraithe ‘the knoll of the hares’ (logainm.ie #13280) in Co. Cork;
Slievenagorea / Sliabh na nGiorraithe ‘the mountain of the hares’ (logainm.ie #52191) in Co. Wexford.

In the singular form we also have:

Annaghgerry / Eanach Ghiorria ‘marsh of (the) hare’ (logainm.ie #29662) in Co. Leitrim; while Haremount (logainm.ie #9792) in Co. Cork is a translation of Cnocán an Ghiorria ‘the hillock of the hare’ (‘Knockanegariagh’, CGn. 11.308.4601).

The anglicized name Keeraunmahoona Hill (logainm.ie #1167453) found on 19th- and 20th-century Ordnance Survey maps of the Conamara Gaeltacht. This evidently represented Caorán Mhathúna ‘the moor of Mathúin (a personal name)’. However, the most recent name of the same feature (and therefore the one adopted for official use by the State in the 2011 placenames order) is as Cnocán na nGiorriacha ‘the hillock of the hares’. It seems that Mathúin lost out to the hares in this particular race to the top.

Determining the origin of the English townland name Haresmead (logainm.ie #53418) in Co. Wexford might look straightforward at first glance, but it is, in fact, somewhat problematic (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland Names in Co. Wexford). However, the balance of evidence points tentatively to derivation from ‘the hare’s meadow’ which has been translated as Móinéar an Ghiorria in the draft Placenames (County Wexford) Order. Remaining in Co. Wexford, we also have a now defunct ‘Parkgaria’ in the civil parish of Ballybrazil near Campile, which unlike Haresmead is doubtless of Irish origin and evidently from Páirc (an) Ghiorria ‘(the) hare’s park’ (1724: CGn. 42.293.26413). An English version of that name is found in Harepark (logainm.ie #43165) in Co. Roscommon, which by strange coincidence is next to the townland of Leam / An Léim ‘the leap’ (logainm.ie #43167), but there is no suggestion in the evidence for An Léim that it is from a longer *Léim an Ghiorria ‘the leap of the hare’.

Elsewhere there are a number of islands called Hare Island, and most of these appear to be English creations rather than translations of an earlier Irish name. One can only presume that these owe their names to the prevalence of hares on those islands. Fortunately, however, the original Irish names of some of the islands in question have survived in one form or another. For example, Hare Island (logainm.ie #129542) near Baltimore in Co. Cork, has the alternative official anglicised name Inishodriscol which is a reflex of Inis Uí Drisceoil ‘the island of Ó Drisceoil’, a surname that was ultimately anglicised as Driscoll. That family has, of course, strong and indelible links to that part of southwest Co. Cork (see P. W. Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Ó Drisceóil). Neither does the original Irish name of the Co. Westmeath townland and island of Hareisland (logainm.ie #50972) in Lough Ree have anything to do with hares. This is Inis Ainín ‘the island of Ainín (a personal name)’, which is attested as ‘Inis Aingin’ and ‘Inis Aingín’ in calendars of Early Irish saints such as Felire na Naomh nErennach aka The Martyrology of Donegal: A Calendar of the Saints of Ireland (FNÉ) where we find ‘Donnan, sagart, ó Inis Aingin for Loch Ríbh’ “Donnán, priest, from Inis Ainín on Loch Rí” (January 7); or ‘[Donnán] sacart ó Inis Aingín for Loch Ribh’ in Féilire Húi Gormáin: The Martyrology of Gorman (January 7). The personal name in question here, Old Irish Aingin [Modern Irish Ainín], was a rare name only occasionally attested in Irish genealogical texts (See for example Leabhar Mór na nGenealach: ‘Ainghin’ (84.3; 1039.1); Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae: ‘Aingen’ (662.26 n.i; 662.28).

The interesting phenomenon of Hare Island (logainm.ie #18883) occurring as the English name of an island with a totally unrelated Irish name continues in the case of Oileán Rois Mhóir ‘island of (the) big headland’ in Galway Bay near Rinmore (currently often written Renmore), which is now part of Galway city. The original Irish name may refer to the headland connected to this island via a sliver of sand and shingle. Notably, this particular Hare Island neighbours Rabbit Island (logainm.ie #18665), itself also an English creation in place of original Oileán Rois Bhig ‘island of (the) little headland’. This Irish name most likely refers to the smaller headland of sand and shingle leading from that island towards the mainland; whence Oileán Rois Mhóir ‘island of (the) big headland’ versus neighbouring Oileán Rois Bhig ‘island of (the) little headland’. This occurrence of Hare Island and Rabbit Island as the names of islands in close proximity to one and other is repeated in the case of Hare Island and Rabbit Island in Lower Lough Erne, but it is unclear what significance might be attached to this. (To be continued next month…)

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

‘As mad as a March hare’ Gort na nGiorriacha / Harefield ‘the field of the hares’ (logainm.ie #36400)

‘As mad as a March hare’
Gort na nGiorriacha / Harefield
‘the field of the hares’ (logainm.ie #36400)