Irish Names of Places, by PW Joyce LLD [1901]

The complete three-volume classic set of books published in Dublin by Phoenix Press, dated for 1901.

Volume One is personally inscribed [in Irish] by the original owner dated for 1910

Dimensions: 13 cm x 18.7 cm. Original Hardcovers with gilt image on cover and lettering on spine. Good condition commensurate with age with only very minor signs of wear.

Topics include: The Topography of Ireland; Origin of local names; philosophy of language; list of the principal historical and topographical works on Ireland published in the twenty years before this book; the Irish Local Name system – how the meanings have been ascertained, systematic changes, corruptions, false Etymologies; the antiquity of local Irish names; historical events; historical personages; early Irish saints – St. Brecan, St. Ide (often called the Irish Brigid of Munster), St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, St. Ciaran of Ossory, St. Finnian; Cape Clear Island; St. Molaga of Templemolaga near Mitchelstown in Cork; legends; Fairies, Demons, Goblins and Ghosts; customs; agriculture and pasturage; subdivisions and measures of land; numerical combinations; habitations and fortresses; ecclesiastical edifices; monuments, graves and cemeteries; towns and villages; fords, weirs and bridges; roads and causeways; mills and kilns; mountains, hills and rocks; plains, valleys, hollows and caves; islands, peninsulas and strands; water, lakes and springs; rivers, streamlets and waterfalls; marshes and bogs; animals; plants etc.; the growth of words; diminutives; borrowed words; poetical and fancy names; diseases and cures – Plague, Leprosy, Jaunice etc.; offices and trades – Gallowglasses and Kerns, Ceithern; strangers; Irish personal and family names Mac Aedha, O’hAedha, Magee, Eoghan, Dunowen etc.; articles of manufacture – chariots and cars, the Chariot of Cuchulainn; boundaries and fences; various artificial works; The Sun; The Atmosphere; The Sea; colours; the animal kingdom; the vegetable kingdom, etc, etc, etc….