We shall conclude with a few words upon the castle itself, which is beautifully situated at the extremity of the principal street of the town of Antrim, on the banks of the Six-mile-water river, and immediately contiguous to Lough Neagh. The entrance from the town is through a fine gate-house, in the Tudor style of architecture, built of cut lime-stone, and closed by two folding-doors of cast iron, which are opened from a room overhead by means of machinery. The principal front of the castle faces the gate-house, and is in the centre of a curtain wall, connecting two large square towers placed at the angles of the building, and which again have smaller circular towers at three of their angles. This front is approached by a magnificent double stone staircase, and presents a great variety of enrichments in the French style of the seventeenth century, and is also decorated with shields having the armorial bearings of the founder’s family, and with medallions containing the portraits of Charles I. and II. The greatest length of the castle, however, runs parallel with the river, from which it is separated only by a low parapet wall, while the terraces of the gardens are situated on the other side. These gardens are no less attractive than the castle itself, with which they appear to be of equal age; they are laid out in the French style, the flower-beds being formed into a variety of patterns, among which that of the fleur-de-lis is the most common and conspicuous. This design is in its way extremely beautiful, and to carry it out fully, no expense or trouble seems to have been spared. The borders are often of triple and quadruple rows of box, between which is laid fine gravel of different colours, which adds greatly to the effect. It is said that a red kind of this gravel was imported from Holland, and cost upwards of 1s. 2d. a quart. This garden is traversed from east to west by a succession of fish-ponds, of which the most central one is circular, and the rest oblong: and miniature cascades conduct the water from the most elevated of these ponds to the lowest. The timber in this garden is of great age and beauty, particularly the lime and oak; and it contains two or three specimens of the rhododendron, which are celebrated for their magnificence, being fully fifteen feet in height, and of corresponding circumference.
The house contains some fine pictures and curious articles of antique furniture.
P.
ORIGIN AND MEANINGS OF IRISH FAMILY NAMES.
BY JOHN O’DONOVAN.
Second Article.
In returning to the subject of the origin of Irish family names, I feel it necessary to adduce two or three additional instances of the erroneous statements put forward by Mr Beauford, as they have had such an injurious influence with subsequent Irish writers on this subject:—
3. “Osragh, derived from Uys raigagh, or the kingdom between the waters, the present Ossory, called also Hy Paudruig, or the district of the country between the rivers, &c., the hereditary chiefs of which were denominated Giolla Paudruig, or the chief of the country between the rivers, called also Mac Giolla Padruic,” &c.
This seems an exquisite specimen of etymological induction, and I have often heard it praised as beautiful and ingenious; but it happens that every assertion made in it is untrue! Osragii is not the Irish name of this territory, but the Latinized form of the name of the inhabitants. Again, Osragii is not compounded of Uys and raigagh; and even if it were, these two vocables are not Irish words, and could not mean what is above asserted, the kingdom between the waters. Again, Ossory was never called Hy Pau-druic, and even if it were, Hy Pau-druic would not mean “district of the country between the rivers.” Next, the hereditary chiefs were not denominated Giolla Paudruic, but Mic Giolla Paudruic (a name afterwards anglicized Fitzpatrick), from an ancestor called Giolla Paudruic, who was chief of Ossory in the tenth century, and who is mentioned in all the authentic Irish annals as having been killed by Donovan, the son of Imar, king of the Danes of Waterford, in the year 975. Moreover, Giolla-Phadruic, the name of this chieftain, does not mean “chief of the country between the rivers,” as Mr Beauford would have us believe, but servant of Saint Patrick, which, as a man’s name, became very common in Ireland shortly after the introduction of Christianity, for at this time the Irish were accustomed to give their children names not only after the Irish apostle, but also after other distinguished saints of the primitive Irish church; and the names of these saints were not at this period adopted as the names of the children, but the word Giolla, or Maol, servant, was generally prefixed to the names of the saints to form those of the children: thus, Giolla Padruic, the servant of St Patrick; Giolla Ciarain, the servant of St Kieran; Giolla Caoimhghin, the servant of St Kevin; Giolla Coluim, the servant of St Columb, &c.
4. “Conmaicne mara, or the chief tribe on the great sea, comprehending the western parts of the county of Galway on the sea coast; it was also called Conmaicne ira, or the chief tribe in the west, and Iar Connaught, that is, west Connaught; likewise Hy Iartagh, or the western country: the chiefs of which were denominated Hy Flaherty or O’Flaherty, that is, the chief of the nobles of the western country, and containing the present baronies of Morogh, Moycullen, and Ballinahinch.”