County Louth Archaeological and History Society

Dinnseanchas: Vol. 2, No. 4; Dinnseanchas: Vol. 3, No. 1Review by: N. R.Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol. 16, No. 3 (1967), p. 194Published by: County Louth Archaeological and History SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27729151 .

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194 COUNTY LOUTH ARCH^OLOGICAL JOURNAL

As well as serving its primary purpose as a guide for use on the site, this book will be found to contain much new information for all who are interested in the progress of the excavation and conservation works which are being carried out at the site of this, our greatest prehistoric monument.

N.B.?Both this book and a summarized version in Irish, English, French and German (Price, gd.) are available at the Tourist Information Office, Newgrange, or direct from the publishers.

J. P. C.

GRAVESTONE INSCRIPTIONS: CO. DOWN

Compiled by Dr. Richard Clarke. Published by Ulster-Scot Historical Society Volumes i and 2. 12s. 6d. per volume

The destruction or imperfect keeping of denominational registers has created a serious gap in the basic research sources available to the genealogist and local historian. Many Church of Ireland registers were

destroyed in the Public Record Office fire in 1922. Most Presbyterian registers begin only in the nineteenth

century and in many instances burial registers were not kept at all until the present century. Roman Catholic

registers are mostly nineteenth-century. Old gravestones, therefore, are often important aids to research, and the purpose of this series is to try to fill the gap before civil registration began?marriages in 1845 and births and deaths in 1864.

These two volumes contain the inscriptions in eighteen graveyards in the baronies of Upper and Lower

Castlereagh and it is hoped that the entire county wrill be covered in due course. Well over half those in the

county have already been copied and are in typescript with the Ulster-Scot Historical Society. All stones with dates of death before 1865 have been copied completely and are arranged in alphabetical order according to the surname of the first burial. Memorial tablets and inscriptions inside churches have also been included and in some of the smaller graveyards a complete transcription has been carried out.

It is obvious from Dr. Clarke's introduction that the condition of graveyards generally in Co. Down is no

better than in our own county. He writes: "

The greatest bar to the reading of inscriptions on gravestones is the

deplorable state of the graveyards. This applies equally to those round prosperous suburban churches, and to the remote country burying grounds, long deserted. Not only are the stones suffering from weather but from destruction by vandalism and the church authorities."

Dr. Clarke's work is a model of its kind. N. R.

DINNSEANCHAS

Vol. 2, No. 4, December, 1967; Vol. 3, No. 1, June, 1968

The December number opens with a consideration of the word meacan which is frequently applied to a hill or short ridge. K. W. Nicholls shows that Slan Padraig is to be identified with the ruined church and graveyard in the townland of Bally new, near Castlebar, and not with Manulla. An extensive list of place-names from

Tory Island has been collected by Nollaig O hUrmoltaigh and is here published together with the phonetic forms. The late Liam O Buachalla's work on the place-names of the barony of Fermoy is supplemented by

Eamonn de hOir with a list of Roche lands in that barony compiled in 1461. The documentation of place-names is continued with lists for Ballykinlar, Co. Down and Horseleap, Co. Westmeath. Ballykinlar is derived from a grant to Christ Church, Dublin, for a perpetual light before the altar.

The late Dr. Liam Price's collections and papers relating to place-names have been presented to the Place names Branch of the Ordnance Survey and in the June, 1968 issue is published from among these papers a reply to a query from Pere Grosjean about Belach Feile. Professor T. S. O Maille suggests that the place-name

Teelin (Co. Donegal) is derived from Middle Irish teilend, a dish, as applied topographically to a hollow in the

ground. A list of publications during 1967 bearing on place-names is a feature and includes several references to our 1966 Journal. Hayestown, Co. Meath and Ballinamullia, Co. Roscommon, are documented and discussed.

N. R.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO IRISH GENEALOGY

Revised by Rosemary f?olliott. Third edition. Published by Irish Genealogical Research Society. 155.

Rev. Wallace Clare, founder of the Irish Genealogical Research Society, first published this book in 1937. It has now been revised and brought up to date by Miss Rosemary f?olliott, Editor of The Irish Genealogist.

This is a useful introduction to the subject and although only running to forty-five pages contains a great amount of information. All the documentary sources are dealt with and a brief study of the relevant sections will help the student to make good use of the available data. Parish registers, convert rolls, Chancery bonds,

marriage licences, tithe books and census returns are all brought before our notice as well as other less obvious sources. The importance of the Registry of Deeds is stressed despite the inadequacy of the indexing system.

A comprehensive bibliography occupies about one-third of the book. Miss f?olliott draws attention to one other source of genealogical information, i.e., gravestones, which can

sometimes supply names and dates not recorded in any document. N. R.

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