Irish-Language

Dinnseanchas agus Seanfhocal - an Irish place-name and a proverb

<address><strong>MUCKAMORE ABBEY:</strong> A photograph taken from &quot;Geophysical investigations at the site of an Augustinian Priory&quot; carried out by QUB&nbsp;On behalf of Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in 2011
MUCKAMORE ABBEY: A photograph taken from "Geophysical investigations at the site of an Augustinian Priory" carried out by QUB On behalf of Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in 2011
MUCKAMORE ABBEY: A photograph taken from "Geophysical investigations at the site of an Augustinian Priory" carried out by QUB On behalf of Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in 2011

DINNSEANCHAS

Muckamore - Maigh Chomair - plain of the confluence, river junction

The Co. Antrim townland and parish of Muckamore derive from the Irish name Maigh Chomair ‘plain of the confluence’. 

The qualifying element comar ‘confluence, river junction’ is also the origin of the place-names Comber and Cumber but in the case of Muckamore, the river junction alluded to is probably the point where the Six Mile Water enters Lough Neagh roughly two miles to the west of the townland, maybe an indication of the extent of the plain referred to in the initial element maigh

A place named Magh Comair is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters; this may well be our Muckamore but we cannot be sure. Muckamore Abbey Hospital is situated a short distance from the ruins of Muckamore Abbey, an Augustinian foundation which was built on the site of a 6th-century monastery founded by St Colmán Eala.

For more information on Irish place-names, check out @placenamesni on twitter and www.placenamesbi.org

SEANFHOCAL

Ith do sháith agus ól do sháith agus déan do sháith den obair, agus nuair a gheobhas tú an bás, féadfaidh tú do sháith a chodladh.

Eat and drink your fill and do your work as best, and when you die, you can sleep your rest.

Well, there is a lot to recommend this simple life where having enough to eat and drink, earned by your hard work, but there is a lot it leaves out.

We don’t need millions in the bank or a Land Rover Discovery or binge on Strictly or the Great British Whatever You Fancy to help us sleep at night.

People, people who need people, may not be the luckiest people in the world so we all need others to help us through the hard times as well as the good but, when you think of it, human beings need, really need, very little to survive on.