A Case Study of Present Day Waterford County, Ireland
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POWER IN PLACE-NAMES: A CASE STUDY OF PRESENT DAY WATERFORD COUNTY, IRELAND A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Jessica E. Greenwald August 2005 This thesis entitled POWER IN PLACE-NAMES: A CASE STUDY OF PRESENT DAY WATERFORD COUNTY, IRELAND by JESSICA E. GREENWALD has been approved for the Department of Geography and the College of Arts and Sciences by Timothy Anderson Associate Professor of Geography Benjamin M. Ogles Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences GREENWALD, JESSICA E. M.A. August 2005. Geography PowerU In Place-Names: A Case Study Of Present Day Waterford County, Ireland (85U pp.) Director of Thesis: Timothy Anderson This study investigates the present day toponymns of Waterford County, Ireland. By using the Land Ordnance Survey of Ireland maps, a database was created with the place names of the county. This study draws upon both traditional and contemporary theories and methods in Geography to understand more fully the meaning behind the place names on a map. In the “traditional” sense, it focuses on investigating changes in the landscape wrought by humans through both time and space (the naming of places). In a more “contemporary” sense, it seeks to understand the power relationships and social struggles reflected in the naming of places and the geography of those names. As such, this study fills a void in the current toponymns and cartographic literature, which are both focused mainly on patterns of diffusion and power struggles in North America. Approved: Timothy Anderson Associate Professor of Geography Acknowledgements I would first like to thank the Ohio University Geography Department. The experiences I have had as both a student and a Teaching Assistant have been truly inspiring. Secondly, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Timothy Anderson, and my committee members, Dr. Geoffrey Buckley and Dr. Christopher Boone. Without their watchful guidance, generous support, and many suggestions I would not have been able to complete this research. I would also like to acknowledge the Aquinas College Geography Department. They were the ones who first opened my eyes to all that the field of Geography has to offer. Finally, I would like to thank my family: Linda, David, Michael, and Josh. Their unwavering support, encouragement, golf outings, and much needed ice cream runs have sustained me through this process. Thank you!! 5 Table of Contents Page Abstract................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................4 List of Figures......................................................................................................................6 Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................................7 The Gaelic Revival ..................................................................................................9 Research Premise...................................................................................................13 Chapter Two: Toponymns Literature................................................................................16 Traditional Cultural Geography Approach ............................................................16 “New” Cultural Geography Approach...................................................................18 Chapter Three: The Power of Maps..................................................................................21 The Myth of Maps and Symbolic Power ...............................................................21 Cartographic Encroachment...................................................................................24 Cartographic Censorship........................................................................................25 Chapter Four: The Study Area..........................................................................................28 The Celts ................................................................................................................28 The Vikings............................................................................................................31 The Normans..........................................................................................................33 The British .............................................................................................................35 The Modern Irish Republic....................................................................................37 History of County Waterford.................................................................................37 Chapter Five: Methods and Data ......................................................................................40 Primary Sources and Methods ...............................................................................40 Results....................................................................................................................43 Chapter Six: Discussion....................................................................................................46 Chapter Seven: Conclusions .............................................................................................54 Relevance of Research...........................................................................................55 References..........................................................................................................................56 Appendix: Waterford County Toponymns Database.........................................................61 6 List of Figures Figure Page 1. Waterford County c. 2005 A.D.....................................................................................14 2. Celtic Ireland c. 650 A.D. .............................................................................................29 3. Viking Ireland c. 950 A.D.............................................................................................32 4. Norman Ireland c. 1300 A.D.........................................................................................34 5. Anglo-Ireland c. 1450 A.D. ..........................................................................................36 7 Chapter One: Introduction The concept of cultural diffusion has occupied a significant place in American cultural and human geography for at least five decades. Much of the early research on the settlement of the New World by such luminaries as Carl Sauer, Fred Kniffen, Wilbur Zelinsky, and Terry Jordan dealt with the delimitation and description of the diffusion of cultural traits from the Old World to the New. Such traditional researchers, working within the so-called “landscape” tradition that dominated the subfield until the 1980s, focused on tracing patterns of past trans-Atlantic or trans-continental migrations and defining the imprint of such movements in the cultural landscape. Typical of the Sauerian-Berkeley tradition, these “traditional” studies were pre-occupied with folk cultures, rural landscapes and material culture landscape elements with an eye toward delimiting and defining American culture regions (Sauer, 1925,1941; Kniffen, 1965; Zelinsky, 1967; Jordan, 1974). In the years following this landscape school of cultural geography came several decades of social unrest and political uncertainty (Mitchell, 2000). With the Cold War, Vietnam Conflict, and human rights riots erupting all over the world, cultural geographers were coming face to face with issues that could not be explained in the traditional way. These issues were not ones to be answered by just investigating the material cultural landscape; something more had to be done. Geographers needed to find a new medium in which to explain the world around them, since what they were confronting did not fit into the confines of the Sauerian tradition of the day. The result was a “New Cultural Geography” which focused more on the power relations that formed the modern landscape rather than the cultural paths on the landscape (Mitchell, 2000). 8 According to Don Mitchell, this New Cultural Geography had four main avenues of exploration: First they sought to connect the very idea of landscape to its historical development as part of the capitalist and Enlightenment transformation of Europe in the early modern period…Second, other geographers reinvigorated the notion of “reading” the landscape, to problemitize the whole notion of exactly what constitutes the “text” to be read-and precisely how it is possible, in any event, to read it. That is, work began to focus more clearly on the interpretation of the symbolic aspects of the landscape. Third, where much traditional cultural geography had examined rural and past landscapes, some new work… focused on urban and contemporary scenes. Finally a sustained feminist critique of the landscape… has been launched. (Mitchell, 2000, p. 61) Many contemporary historical geographers influenced by the so-called New Cultural Geography have begun to analyze cultural landscapes in a more critical way, within the context of the four principals above. Such studies seek to understand what past landscape imprints reveal about historical power relations and social struggles. They seek to understand not just how the past landscape looked, but how it was