Inishark—all tell their own tale. Other names allude to legends, like Dunbriste, "the broken fort"; Lugnaphoilla, "the hollow of blood," where the great "Battle of Cross" was fought; the Dane's Prison, Leckaprison and Prisoon respectively in the Mullet, Cliara and Bofin. Allusive and sarcastic names are not absent (a few coarse) like Buddagh, Buddavanagh, Calliaghcrom, "the three Hags," "The Crew" Sraher (pack saddle), Ton Tuahail, the Three Leimataggarts (Priest's Leap), belong to the Christian period, so do a galaxy of Saints' names—Downpatrick, Rosserk, Croaghpatrick, the Mionnaun,[1] Trabride, Caherpatrick, Cruachmacdara, Gregory's Sound, and endless wells and churches. There is a rich store of names derived from animals—horses, colts, cattle, sheep, lambs, goats, kids, wild boar, dogs, pigs, seals, porpoises, herrings, crabs, limpets and even butterflies.[2]
O'Donovan gives a warning that many of these names are arbitrary, given by a single person, and perhaps only used by a single family, some perhaps made up on the spur of the moment. My own experience supports this suggestion.
II. and III. Banshees and Death Omens.
In recent years (in connection with the pagan sanctuaries, cemeteries and places of assembly) I have studied the question of the beliefs of the pagan Irish just before the introduction of Christianity and their survival in subsequent folk-belief. To these studies, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vols. xxxiii. and xxxiv., and the Journal of the North Munster Archaeological Society, vol. iv., I must refer students for proofs and arguments. I need only here briefly state that down to the tenth century Christian writers spoke candidly about the Irish gods, but from a.d. 950 the prejudice against Norse and Danish paganism led scholars to dispose of the old
