Placenames Project Methodology

PLACENAMES PROJECT.

1. METHODOLOGY.
The first consideration was the proposed format for presentation of the eventual finalised project. It was anticipated that when complete the project would include a substantial number of maps and photographs, which would render print publication costs prohibitive and the possibility of including sound files, to indicate the received pronunciation, especially of Irish language names, indicated a strong preference for internet or other digital, multimedia  publication format.

2. SELECTION OF PROJECT AREA.
The next consideration was the selection of a suitable area for the pilot study. My personal area of expertise, such as it is, is for local history of the part of County Clare delineated as the Barony of Ibrickane and a weighting within that barony for the two parishes of Kilfarboy (being the formal name for the R.C. parish of Miltown Malbay), and Kilmurry Ibrickane (being the name of the parish which includes the villages of Mullagh and Quilty).
 In the matter of names of places which are lower in the hierarchy than townlands, there is a noticeable increase in numbers of feature names in coastal regions. On consideration, this is not difficult to understand. Unlike land, areas of sea cannot be designated by reference to the owner nor the local geography and must be denoted by reference to an adjacent prominent land point. Thus names for these points proliferate, more so than might be the case for a similar land-locked area. For this reason it was felt that two pilot areas were desirable, one coastal and the other land-bound. Preliminary enquiries indicated two respondents who could supply significant information, one in each of the base parish areas and so the areas adjacent to their home townlands were identified in a general way. The final selection for the purpose of this report is based on these areas but all respondents provided significant information relative to places outside the  townlands actually reported on here, this, hopefully will be reported at a later date.

It is important that the project receive as much publicity as possible. In this case a Clare FM interview, organised by Tomás Mac Conmara, yielded important feedback from the public.

3.  MAPS.
The matter of whether the project should be predominantly desk based or field based was left pending benefit of further experience. An adequate supply of maps based on the townland structure was obviously essential so I used a personal computer to scan my existing  O.S. 6” maps (supplemented where necessary by Clare County Council maps) in such a way that almost all townlands could be printed onto a single A4 sheet. A small number of townlands could not be reproduced at this scale on A4 and these were divided into two parts. Prior to scanning, the townland boundaries on the (black and white) maps were emphasised in colour (light brown) and this proved helpful both in the scanning process and in later orienting the viewer. (With benefit of hindsight, I should have done this in green – the colour used in the O.S. 1842 maps.) The opportunity was taken to produce a full set of maps for the two parishes in this way, even though some townlands were distant from the base areas of the proposed respondents.
This procedure proved particularly useful in a number of ways: maps were of manageable size (A4) and the full parish could be held together in Alpha order on a clipboard and handled relatively easily during field work. Respondents could be invited to mark spots on the map without fear of destroying it. The marked map could easily be replaced in the set by printing out a new copy. The digitised version could be used later to prepare the final project report. Even with this preparation, I was, occasionally caught short for maps when respondents ‘wandered’ into neighbouring parishes.

4. BACKGROUND RESEARCH.
To get the best results from respondents, it is important that they should feel that the interviewer has a reasonable competence in the subject and that they do not feel that they are ‘throwing pearls before swine’. Obviously any published local histories and the works of Frost ,White, O Dwyer et al. should be examined.

In the course of preparation of the first series of Ordnance Survey maps in 1839-40, a serious effort was made to ensure that places were ‘properly’ named on the published maps. In the course of their work the Placenames Branch of the O.S. made thorough investigation of all historical references to particular places and also visited the actual locations and collected the names of features there. The results of their work were recorded in  the field namebooks which, thankfully, are still available and a thorough familiarisation with them is essential for a project such as this. In theory reference to the microfilm version of the namebooks, in Clare Library, might be adequate but, such is there importance, in practice it proved far preferable to print out the entire name books from the microfilm and keep them at hand for reference. Typed versions were produced for inclusion in the final report for each of the townlands selected.

The O.S. Fair Plans are a set of  ‘draft’ maps produced in advance of the final 6” series. They were based on the information as it was initially collected and before this information was standardised on a national basis. It appears that placenames are spelled phonetically, as received on the ground and for that reason they may have a particular importance. The difficulty with these maps is that they may only be inspected in the National Archives in Dublin and although they very kindly permit photography (in limited circumstances) satisfactory reproduction as working documents, is very difficult.

 The Schools Folklore Collection of the Department of Irish Folklore is another essential manuscript resource which must be examined and where necessary , relevant sections  must be copied and typed up. The general collection of the Department of Irish Folklore should also be consulted for references, even though this generally requires a visit to the archives in UCD.

Other resources which may be available, such as old estate maps, surveys and/or rentals can be identified with the help of local library or local historians.

5. INTERVIEWS.
With this basic desk work done I conducted a number of interviews with people identified as likely sources. Of eight interviews conducted three in particular, proved extremely useful. Two of these were the people initially identified and I  met the third in the course of field work. Not all respondents will permit recording of interviews but for those who did, I found it best to record the initial interview indoors, while identifying the locations on maps. After trying to find the spots named,  photograph them, and after writing a first draft of the report, I conducted a second interview to clear up the queries. A third interview will take the form of showing my second draft report to the respondent and recording his reactions.
After recording the interviews, I listened to them on the computer using Adobe Audition 2 software. I listed all keywords in the interview in order of occurrence, so that I could easily refer back to what the respondent actually said and I saved short clips of the respondent speaking names of particular significance in a separate digital file and in an internet compatible file format. Photographs were, similarly saved in internet compatible file format.

6. EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE.
Given the nature of such projects it is inevitable that the project will depend on such equipment as is already easily available. Budgets are unlikely to facilitate significant expenditure on either equipment or software.
For my part of this project the equipment used was;
Canon 300D Digital SLR camera with various lenses
Edirol R1 digital recorder,
MS Word 2007.
Adobe Audition 2 (sound)
Adobe Photoshop CS for maps and pictures.

If the final report is to be in a digital format then the use of digital recorders and cameras make the work significantly easier, for reasons that should be obvious.
The documents which I have included in the project are prepared using MS Word 2007. The native file format for this programme is .docx which is likely to be the format of the future - but such documents cannot be read by older versions of MS Word, which are by far the most common and so I have saved the documents in the older format - .doc and these will be used for the time being. Conversion to the newer system can be simply done when required.
The newer versions of MS Word and Internet Explorer allow the use of ‘Screen tips’ – an explanatory note, which appears on the screen, only when the pointer hovers over the highlighted word. I have used the ‘Screen tips’ as a substitute for standard footnotes but, unfortunately, they will not be visible to users of earlier versions of MS Word.

7. NOTE ON ANGLICISATION OF PLACENAMES.
Much has been written on the Anglicisation of Irish placenames and it has always proved a thorny subject. My approach has been that, if I have any previous written record of the name I adopt the same spelling, regardless of all other considerations. If I have no written record of the name of the particular place (and I do not search for, nor take cognisance of similar names elsewhere in Ireland) then I write the name in the simplest form of common English that I can –  with a view to  facilitating pronunciation by an Anglophone. In doing this I try to preserve the Irish word structure, I do not try to make one English word of a number of Irish words. Also, I try to provide the proper written Irish equivalent in all cases, with comment where deemed appropriate.

8. TIME.
The time involvement in this project has been wildly in excess of anything that I anticipated at the outset, and I feel it is important to record this for the benefit of others who may be embarking on similar projects. As I do not work in any organised routine it is difficult to give any accurate assessment of the actual total time involved, but something in the region of 40 hours per week for 16 weeks to date ( 20-11-07) does not seem unreasonable. I also started with the considerable advantage of having collected significant information on placenames in advance of the project.
It is also to be noted that not all of the information collected during the work on the project can be presented within the timescale allowed for completion. It is hoped that the project can be extended in future years, as there is undoubtedly a great deal more information available and in urgent need of being recorded.