Featured themes 21/10/2024

English placenames in a Irish coat (phonetic approximations)
Crickstown/Circiostún
(logainm.ie #37859)

Date: 21/10/2024

We will continue, as promised, to look at some other phonetic approximations – English townland names adapted into the Irish phonetic system during the gaelicization process, with no attempt at translation – as seen in Gaulstown (‘Gallyston’ (c 1540)) → Gallastún, Co. Meath.

In Co. Meath we have, amongst others, Crástún < Craystown (logainm.ie #39061), Dústún (< ‘Doweston’ (1616)) < Dowdstown (logainm.ie #1946) and Múrtún < Mooretown (logainm.ie #38730). (Coincidentally, exactly the same description used for Gaulstown/Gallastún was recorded in Mooretown/Múrtún: ‘Múrtan na gcrann; baile gann gortach’.) We have already discussed the interesting phonetic adaptation of the townland names Hilltown Little and Hilltown Great (par. Duleek) as Sealtún Beag (logainm.ie #38375) and Sealtún Mór (logainm.ie #38374).

This phenomenon was in no way confined to Co. Meath. Two certain examples from neighbouring Co. Louth are Carastún/Carstown (logainm.ie #34066) and Fileastún/Fieldstown (logainm.ie #34038). In Co. Kildare we find Bolton (logainm.ie #24983) attested as Boltún in an Irish poem dating from the 1580s (‘do Bhultún’). In the same county, we have no less an authority than Michél Ó Cléirigh for the phonetic adaptation (and re-interpretation) of Blackhall as Bláthcholl (#109012) in the 1660s. The gaelicization of such a seemingly transparent English name so close to Dublin is very noteworthy.

One of the most well-attested examples of this process is the townland and parish name Crickstown/Circiostún (logainm.ie #1844) in Co. Meath. John O’Donovan correctly identified the surname as that of a family called Crick, well-attested among the Anglo-Normans and their descendants. A David Crick of ‘Ballyehire … county [of Dublin]’ (? leg. *Ballychire = Cheeverstown/Baile an tSíbhrigh (#17364), Co. Dublin) features in a pardon dating from 1560 (Calendar of Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery, Vol. I, p. 443) and a William Crike of Co. Louth figures in a patent roll in 1426 (Patent Roll 5 Henry VI; virtualtreasury.ie/circle). A metathesized variant Kirk features in the townland name Acrenakirka/Acra an Chircigh (logainm.ie #47683) in Co. Tipperary. The development from Crick to Kirk is shown in the early evidence for another placename, Moorstown/Baile na Móna (logainm.ie #48230) – also in Co. Tipperary – in which the place itself is attested as ‘Ballynamonykirke’ and ‘Mooretownkirke’, containing versions of Kirk, while the surnames of the owners are recorded in unmetathesized form, e.g. Richard Cryk and Philip Cryk.

Therefore, there can be little doubt that Crickstown, Co. Meath, is derived from Crick + -’s + -town, and that forms such as ‘Kyrkyston’ and ‘Kyrkeston’ reflect variants of the surname that have undergone metathesis of /r/. (Metathesis is particularly common with /r/, e.g. Modern English bird < Middle English brid. See T. Pyles & J. Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (1993) p. 38.) Again, historical forms of Crickstown such as ‘Kyrkyston’ and ‘Crickiston’ show the epenthetic vowel /ə/ before the genitive marker -’s, a characteristic of the English spoken by the early colonizers (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV; Townland Name of Co. Wexford, p. 692). There is a large body of supporting evidence from other placenames for the authenticity of ‘Circioston’ (now standardized as Circiostún) – the local Irish name recorded in the Ordnance Survey Parish Namebook – as a phonetic approximation to Crickstown. But it also has direct confirmation in Irish literary sources from the 16th and 17th centuries, spelt ‘Circustoum’, ‘Circistoún’ and ‘Chircastún’. Notice, once again, the similarity of these gaelicized forms to the earlier trisyllabic form ‘Kyrkyston’ (*c.*1305) showing the epenthetic vowel before -’s.

So the next time you are travelling through places like Bolton, Crickstown or Gaulstown and see signs for Boltún, Circiostún and Gallastún, please don’t think that they were invented by some civil servant in Dublin trying to get out of the office early on a Friday. This type of gaelicization is thoroughly authentic and has a very long history. Placenames like these should make us pause for thought, in fact, as they prove that for many hundreds of years after the initial Anglo-Norman settlement, the primary language of almost the entire area of the Pale was Irish.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

English placenames in a Irish coat (phonetic approximations) Crickstown/Circiostún (logainm.ie #37859)

English placenames in a Irish coat (phonetic approximations)
Crickstown/Circiostún
(logainm.ie #37859)