Athlone-based author traces place names, meanings and lore in new book

by Navjyoti Dalal

An Athlone resident will launch her debut book in the Athlone Bookshop, at Lloyd's Lane, on November 1.

Place Names of Ireland: From Inishbiggle To New Twopothouse is editor Paula Elmore's debut vehicle as an author. The book, published by The O'Brien Press, serves as a guide to Ireland’s odd and quirky place names, detailing their etymology and folklore.

For Paula, the seed of this book was sown in her childhood.

“My father, who started out as a sales rep for Jacobs biscuits, would tell us stories about places like Spellickanee, where my grandfather was born, or Annabolica, where my dad would meet up with friends,” says Paula.

Growing up in Cooley, home to the saga of The Cattle Raid of Cooley, she noticed names like Queen Maeve's Gap. “It was fascinating to see a Connacht queen remembered in a place on the opposite side of the country,” she says.

Paula’s interest in place names grew with her work, particularly while editing a series of Irish walking guides, which featured places off the beaten track.

Her book, Paula tells us, took about nine months to write. Apart from research, and the walking-guides experience, she tapped into the stories she accumulated since her childhood.

Apart from discovering how Queen Maeve's competitive streak left an imprint on the east coast of Ireland, the process of writing the book brought her face-to-face with names that left her tongue in a twist.

Ireland’s most unpronounceable names are the anglicised versions of Irish names, for instance Lough Eekenohoolikeaghaun on Cork's Beara peninsula, which was originally Loch Eisceanna Chorlaí Uí Cheocháin – the lake of Corley Uí Cheocháin’s esk or marsh.

As well as a chapter on similarly unpronounceable names, Paula has included chapters on names that 'sound as cosy as our reputation for the céad míle fáilte and ones that honour our saints'.

“I found names which remember our sinners, too,” she adds with a laugh, before adding that she came across stories of pirates, a witch, and a highwayman.

The book was an opportunity for Paula to recall the heroes and adventurers whose biographies she has edited over the course of her career.

“One of the most incredible stories I had the privilege to work on was that of Aidan MacCarthy from Castletownbere, Cork, who was a man of unbelievable luck and courage. He trained as a GP and joined the RAF during the Second World War.

“He was a POW in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped, which he miraculously survived. When Japan surrendered, he was presented with a Samurai sword in gratitude by the Japanese camp commander whose life MacCarthy saved. The sword still hangs in a family-owned pub,” says Paula.

Interestingly, Paula's book also records a lesser-known theory of how Athlone got its name. While the commonly held belief is that Athlone is derived from 'the townland of the ford of Luan', Paula found one by Celtic studies scholar, Dr James MacKillop.

This one figures that Athlone is an anglicised form of 'the ford of the loins'. The loins here belong to Finnbhennach, King Ailill's white bull, who died fighting the Brown Bull of Cooley. The fight resulted in dismembered body parts falling across Ireland, with Athlone receiving the loins.

Paula's connection to Athlone is not very old, but she holds the town close to her heart and says it is a great place to be based as a freelance editor.

“It is located right in the middle, making every destination a doable distance. I moved here in 2019 from Cork, where I had worked for the Collins Press. Within a year the pandemic hit, which wasn’t great for getting to know the area, but I’ve since made up for lost time,” says Paula, who previously worked in Dublin, London and Cork.

Place Names of Ireland: From Inishbiggle To New Twopothouse will be published on October 26, and the book will be formally launched on Sunday, November 1, 3pm, at the Athlone Bookshop, in the Village at Burgess on Lloyd's Lane.

The afternoon is expected to turn into a literary meet-up with book lovers and members of the Athlone Library Book Club cheering on Paula, a fellow member.