¶1] Among the continental Celts, each distinct population-group bore a plural name, e.g. Haedui. The singular form denoted an individual member of the community, e.g. Haeduus. This system of nomenclature, very general in ancient Europe, might be expected to exist in the oldest Irish traditions. In Ptolemy's description of Ireland, the sixteen peoples named all bear names of this order.
¶2] Most of the names given by Ptolemy lack identification in the native Irish tradition. The absence of these from Irish writings may be accounted for in more than one way. Some of the names may have been inaccurately recorded by Ptolemy. Some may have been corrupted beyond recognition by his copyists. Some may have designated peoples whose identity became forgotten through conquest and dispersion, for there is ample evidence that the period between Ptolemy's time (c. A.D. 150) and the beginning of contemporary records in Ireland was marked by great commotion, involving widespread changes in distribution and relative status of the older elements of the population.
¶3] The Ogham inscriptions, as I have shown in an article on the word Moccu (Ogham mucci) in Ériu, vol. 3, part 1, sometimes record names not only
¶4] In Christian Ireland, from the fourth century onward, the plural formula for people-names exists only as a survival. The Ulidian tales, which are held to embody very ancient traditions, assign indeed a prominent part to peoples with plural names, the Ulaid, the Lagin, the Galeoin, the Érainn, but not a more prominent part than to the Connachta, whose name belongs to quite a different order. As the phrase teora Connachta shows, this name, though plural, is the plural not of a word denoting an individual, but of a collective noun. Already in the pre-Christian period such collective nouns have for the most part displaced the older formula, tending to obliterate it largely from traditional memory, since among the hundreds of collective names on record only a small proportion are known to originate from an earlier group bearing a plural name.
¶5] The obsolescence of the earlier order of names is further exemplified in the complete absence, so far as my observation goes, of any instance of the use of the singular to denote an individual. The only approach to such usage in my knowledge is the occurrence of a few names like Cormac Gaileng, Ailill Érann, Mugdorn Dub, etc., for persons who in the genealogical lore stand as eponymous ancestors to the Gailing, the Erainn, the Mugdoirn, etc.
¶6] In the Christian period, the surviving plural names (except in genealogical writings) tend more and more to become dissociated from population-groups, and to attach themselves in ordinary usage to geographical areas, e.g. Laigin, usually meaning the country Leinster, or the people of Leinster, of whom the original Laigin were only one section.
¶7] The following names from Irish MS. sources appear to belong to what may be called the first order, i.e. to the Haedui-type1:
¶8] *Arai, dat. pl. Araib. Middle Irish Ara Thíre, Ara Chliach.
¶9] *Coraind, *Corrind, dat. pl. Corannaib, Correndaib, Windisch, Táin Bo Cuailngi, index. In the Boyne valley, corresponding to Ptolemy's Coriondi. Compare Corcu Cuirnd, Cuirenrige.
¶10] Cruithni, gen. pl. Cruithne, acc. pl. Cruithniu, but in composition Cruithen-tuath, Cruithen- chlár. MacFir Bisigh, Book of Genealogies, R.I.A. copy, p. 54, quotes a poem on the aithechtuatha, with the couplet (eight and seven syllables):
The correct reading is probably Cruithen, t from the familiar Cruithentuath being added by MacF. or some earlier scribe. The early stem should have been *Qretino-, *Qreteno-, and perhaps the Greek form Prettano- may have been influenced by Brittani. Cruithni, Cruithne, may represent an early secondary formation in -io-, or may be merely a late development like Érnai, Mugdornai. Such a development could arise from acc. pl. Cruithniu, dat. pl. Cruithnib, which would be common to both forms, and even a nom. pl. *Cruithin could easily become Cruithni in transcription.
- Clann Chathraighe a ccriochaibh Cruithent
or chin Cairbre Cinn Cait cruaidh.
¶11] Éli, gen. pl. Éle.
¶12] Érainn, gen. pl. Érann (not gen. sg. as in Onomasticon Goedelicum), acc. pl. Érna (= Érnu), dat. pl. Érnaib, = Iérni, Iverni, ‘Hiberni’. Probably a secondary formation from an older *Ivéri, whence *Ivériu, Ériu, Iwerddon. In the Ulidian tales, the Érainn are frequently called Clanda Dedad, and in the genealogies they have, besides Ailill Érann, an eponymous ancestor Iar macc Dedad. The group of tales centring in Conaire Mór are the heroic legend of this race, and Conaire's father is called Eterscél (also Eterscéle) moccu Iair. Macc Iair is a personal name, not an ordinary patronymic: hence the sept-name Ui Maicc Iair and the Ogham Maqi Iari. Windisch (T.B.C. index) cites Iarna as a duplicate form of Érna. We may suppose the double base ér, iar, to have arisen from a coexisting pair iér-, ivér-. Compare Ierne, Ptolemy's Iernos potamos, Iernis polis, contemporary with Iuverna, Iuerna, Hibernia.
¶13] Féni, gen. pl. Féne, as Meyer has shown ( Fianaigecht, p. viii), may be an ancient people-name, not the name of a class as has been supposed.
¶14] *Fothairt, gen. pl. Fothart.
¶15] *Galing, gen. pl. Galeng.
¶16] Galiúin, Galeoin, gen. pl. Galian, Galion.
¶17] Lagin, gen. pl. Lagen.
¶18] Manaig or Monaig, dat. pl. Manachaib, but derivative Manchaig. Compare Manapii.
¶19] Maugdoirn, Mugdoirn, gen. pl. -dorn, acc. pl. -dornu. Compare Ptolemy's Darini.
¶20] Sogain, gen. pl. Sogan. Compare Sograige (?), Corcu Sogain, Corcu Suigin (Sogain here being gen. sg. of the eponym, as in moccu Sogin, Ogham mucoi Sogini).
¶21] Ulaid, gen. pl. Uloth, acc. pl. Ultu. The earlier nom. pl. must have been Uluti or Oluti, and one may surmise that Ptolemy's Ouolountioi, whose location well corresponds to that of the Ulaid around Emain, is a scribal corruption of Oulouti = Uluti, perhaps through the influence of the Latin voluntas.
¶22] Vellabori (Ptolemy), Velabri (Orosius) seems to have left a trace in the place-name Luachair Fellubair (LL 23 a 17). This name occurs in a poem which aims at accounting for the distribution of the peoples said to be descendants of Fergus Mac Roig. Wherever Rudraige, the Ulidian king of Ireland, won a battle, his grandson Fergus planted a colony of his own race.
Of these colonies were Ciarraige Luachra (in North Kerry) and Ciarraige Cuirche (Kerrycurrihy barony, co. Cork), and the victories of Rudraige which led to them are thus recited:
- Cech rói reraig corruadchathaib cen chridenas
cotgab iar fír roslín Fergus dia fhinichas.
Ptolemy clearly indicates the Vellabori as inhabiting the south-western corner of Ireland, and Orosius speaks of the Velabri as looking towards Spain. In the verse cited, we should expect gen. pl. Fellabor = *Vellabron, but the word may be used eponymically in gen. sg. like Dedad in Luachair Dedad, another name for the same district.
- Fich cath Curchu cath Luachra laechdu Fellubair
secht catha i Cliu intochtmad friu i nGlendamain.
¶23] In the absence of examples of the singular, it seems likely that Aidni, Luaigni, Luigni, Uaithni belong to this order rather than to the collectives in -ne.
¶24] Dési is to be classed apart, being the plural of a common noun déis ensemble de vassaux. Aire désa, lord of a vassal tenantry. See D'Arbois de Jubainville, Cours de Littérature Celtique, vol. viii, p. 204. In the story of the migration of the Dési (ed. Meyer, Ériu 3, p. 141), the narrator is at pains to explain (lines 215–219) that the derogatory term dési is not applicable properly to Dál Fiachach, the dominant people of Dési Muman:
¶25] ‘Coica toirgi2 laisna Déisi. A cuic fichet dib tarthatar raind, a cuic fichet aile nach tarthatar ocus is dona toirgib [sin] is ainm Déisi. Ar itt e fil fo deisis ocus dligud ocus bodagas dona flathaib .i. do Dail Fiachach Suigde ocus ni hainm doib-side Déisi.’ ‘The Dési had fifty migrations (i.e. consisted of fifty migratory peoples). Twenty-five got a share (of the conquered land), another twenty-five got no share, and to these migratory peoples the name Dési belongs. For it is they who are under (deisis) vassal-tribute3 and law and bodagas to the rulers, i.e. to Dál Fiachach Suigdi, and Dési is not a name for the latter.’
¶26] The story professes to give a list of the migratory peoples who assisted Dál Fiachach in the campaign. The list names forty-seven peoples, not fifty. The first three are mentioned twice in immediate succession, and so may have been counted as six by the compiler of the list, who doubtless aimed at collecting fifty names and ceased to extend his list when it seemed to reach that number. These migratory bodies are described by a term (loinges, l. 103), indicating that they were already landless. The account of the aithechtuatha, BB 255a, has two lists, of which the first, ending on the line 18, contains 46 names. Most of these correspond to the names in the Dési story, and the list was doubtless extracted from a version of the story. These premisses fully sustain the interpretation of déis given by D'Arbois de Jubainville.
¶27] *Airgéill is given by Hogan on the authority of the index to Stokes's Tripartite Life. The gen. pl. is Airgiall, but the nom. pl. in Middle Irish texts, as noted by me, is only Airgialla. The name seems to be of comparatively late formation, and cannot be classed with the old order of plural people-names.
¶27a] Mac Fir Bhisigh ( Genealogies, p. 54) quotes a poem on the aithechtuatha, which include ‘Absdanaigh for iarthar Erenn, for Luachair Chairbrighe.’ Further it is stated that the ‘Absdanaigh iarthair Erenn’ are of the Fir Bolg. See also Onomasticon Goedelicum Since Cairbrige is said to be an older name for Ciarraige Luachra (perhaps for the territory, from a people supposed to have anciently possessed it), the locality indicated is Luachair in western Munster.
¶28] As in Airgialla, so in several other plural names with o-stem, Middle Irish usage substitutes a strengthened nominative: Araid for *Arai, gen. pl. Arad, acc. pl. Arada; Érna, Érnai for Erain; Fotharta, Gailenga, Mugdorna, Mugdornai. The added syllable is occasionally maintained in gen. pl., e. g. septem genera Gailinga. Compare what has been said above on Cruithni, *Cruithin.