Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Travels in Ireland (Author: Johann Georg Kohl)

chapter 21

Waterford

English and Irish Names of places—Bally, Dun, Rath, Glen, Kil, Ennis—Decrease and increase of the population of Irish Towns—Exportation of Grain—Repeal-rooms—The East of Ireland—Wounds inflicted by Cromwell

Waterford and Wexford were both founded by the Danes, and, with the surrounding country, were held by them longer than any other part of Ireland. Hence their names are not Celtic, but Germanic. In the geography of Ireland there are multitudes of these Germanic names, which were introduced by the Danes or the English. They are easily known by the terminations: -ford, -town, -borough, -berry, &c., as for example, Maryborough, Mitchelstown, Thomastown, Castletownsend, Rosscarberry, Bearhaven, and many others.

It is perhaps more worthy of remark that some of the natural features of the country have also laid aside their old Celtic appellations, which they doubtless originally possessed, and have assumed English names, as the river Blackwater, the Hungry Hills, near Bantry, the Keeper Mountain, near Limerick, and the Mourne Mountains, near Newry. The names of sandbanks, of many islands and headlands, have likewise become English: yet, it must be remarked that these English names are often nothing more than corrupted and Anglicized Celtic words. On the whole, however, the old Celtic names are yet the most prevalent in Ireland, as well in the objects of art as in those of nature. They have been retained every where, even within the ‘Pale,’ i.e. within that part of the country which the English surrounded with palisade work, and within which they made every thing else English—namely, within the province of Leinster.19 Some of these old Irish names of rivers are, the Suir, the Shannon, the Bandon, the Kenmare, &c.; and of mountains, Inchiquin, Commeragh, Slievh Bernagh, Croagh Patrick, and innumerable others. It is also worthy of remark, that the highest mountain summits have usually retained the longest their ancient Celtic popular names.


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As the English names of towns are distinguished by their terminations, so many of the genuine Irish may be known by their first or last syllables. Some of the most common of these are Bally, Dun, Rath, Glen, Kil, Ennis, and others. Bally signifies town; Dun is the old far-famed word, which is so frequently found in countries that once were Celtic, and signifies hill; Rath has nearly the same meaning; Glen signifies valley; Ennis, or Innis, an island; and Kil, a church. Bally is decidedly that most used in composition; for instance, Ballynasloe, Ballyporeen, Ballyshannon, Ballymahon. No less frequent is Dun; as Dundrum, Dundalk, Dunmore, Dunkerrin, Dungarvan. Rath is not so frequently used: Rathdrum, Rathdowny, Rathcormuck, Rathkeale, Rathvilly, and Rathronan are instances. Kil occurs in more numerous instances; as Kilkenny, Kilbaha, Killarney, Killaloe, Kildare, Killala, Kilbegs. Ennis, or Innis, is frequently used; as the town of Ennis, Enniscorthy, Enniscaltra, Ennistogue. The study of these old Irish names, most of which go back into the times of the Druids, and their comparison with the numerous Celtic names of Scotland and Wales, and with those which still exist in France, Italy, Spain, and Germany, would be a subject of the greatest interest, and its complete investigation yet remains to be accomplished.

Waterford is the sixth city in Ireland, and has about 30,000 inhabitants. For the last twenty years the amount of its population has been nearly stationary, having increased little more than a thousand during that period. It is remarkable that this has been the case with nearly all the towns of the south of Ireland; thus Waterford, which in 1821 had 28,676 inhabitants, in 1831 had 28,821; and Wexford, which in 1821 had 10,580, in 1831 numbered only 10,673. In other towns the increase is extremely slow; thus Cork, in 1821, contained 100,658 inhabitants, and 107,016 in 1831, being an increase of only six per cent. Kilkenny, with a population of 23,230 in 1821, increased about two per cent, in ten years; and Youghal and Cove seven per cent, during the same period. Some of the southern towns seem even to retrograde in the amount of their population, as Clonmel, which in 1821 had 15,590 inhabitants, and in 1831 only 15,134; and Bandon, which in 1821 had 10,179, and in 1831 only 9,917. During the same period the general increase of population in Ireland was fourteen and a half per cent. Nearly all the towns of the south fall short of this general increase: Tralee, Thurles, and a few more insignificant places, being the only exceptions. The greatest increase of population is in the towns of the north of Ireland. Belfast, in the last ten years,has increased its population forty-two per cent; Galway twenty, Londonderry sixteen, and Newry thirty per cent.


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This is a remarkable fact, the causes of which it would be somewhat difficult to explain. The entire average increase of population in all the towns of Ireland, in this period, was eleven and a half per cent., being three and a half per cent. less than that of the entire country. Thus it appears that the principal increase of population does not take place in the towns, but in the country. In this respect Ireland differs from England and Scotland, where the population of the towns increases much more rapidly than that of the country.

Though the population of Waterford has increased so little during the last twenty years, its exports have not remained equally stationary. On the contrary, as is proved by the official returns, its exports have been doubled. The same number of men, therefore, must have nearly twice as much to do now as they had formerly. The principal article of export from Waterford is the grain of the surrounding country, which is shipped to England. This trade has been constantly increasing during the last forty years, and is now almost five times as great as it was before that period. In the year 1802 the entire quantity of grain exported from all Ireland to England amounted to 461,000, or nearly half a million of quarters, at which it remained till about the year 1808, when it first exceeded half a million of quarters, and amounted to 656,000. From that year it slowly increased, till in 1818 it amounted to over a million, being then 1,200,000 quarters. In 1825 it was two millions, and in 1837 three millions. In 1838 it was higher than it ever was before, namely, 3,474,000 quarters of corn, mostly oats, which is the principal grain of Ireland. From this year it has somewhat fallen off, but has ever since been more than two millions.

Waterford possesses two prominent features which are of the greatest advantage to its trade: first, one of the most wonderful quays in the world; and, secondly, one of the finest harbours in Ireland. The quay is a mile long, and so broad and convenient withal, that it must be invaluable to merchants and mariners. It is skirted by a row of elegant houses; and the scenery on the opposite side of the river, which is here a mile and a half wide, is extremely picturesque.

The embouchure of the river Suir, which forms the harbour, is wide and deep, without islands or sandbanks, and affords all possible security and convenience to ships. I have already said that Waterford harbour has a great similarity to the bay of Cove, near Cork. Cleaving the land in a similar manner, it runs from the sea, taking with it the sea water, for ten or fifteen miles into the country. At its upper end it divides into two branches, one of


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which runs west, and the other northwards, while at New Ross it receives the Barrow and the Nore. All this extent of land and water, as far as Waterford and New Ross, and then somewhat farther up the Suir, Barrow, and Nore, is one of the most beautiful and charming districts in Ireland.

I took tea in Waterford, at an hotel which had a separate room for the friends of repeal. On the windows of this apartment the words ‘REPEAL ROOMS’ were displayed in large characters. Similar rooms are met with in many Irish towns, where the friends of repeal are always to be found, perusing the opposition papers of England and Ireland, which are taken for their use. Most of the provincial papers of Ireland are, of course, opposition papers. In Waterford alone, three of them are published. The Dublin Evening Mail is the leading Tory paper of Ireland, and I did not find it in any of the repeal rooms I visited. I am inclined to think that we Germans, were we ever so zealous repealers, would sometimes read the Evening Mail, if it were only to ascertain what our adversaries said of us. English parties, however, are always so completely absorbed in their own interests, that they merely read the papers of their party, and appear not to give themselves the slightest trouble about the arguments of their opponents. In this respect they rely implicitly on the commentaries of their own journalists, who sometimes apprise them of the ‘disloyal and outrageous machinations’ of the opposite party.

At Waterford the east of Ireland commences. As the nations of the south—the Phoenicians, the Spaniards, and the French—chose their landing-places at Bantry, in Kerry, Clare, and other places in the south-west; so those sailing from the east, as the Danes, the Welsh, and the English, first arrived near Waterford, which town, with Wexford, the Danes first possessed and longest retained. The Welsh Strongbow effected his landing between Wexford and Waterford. The English King Henry II. landed at Waterford, and there commenced his conquest of Ireland. Here Cromwell also landed, and from hence he marched into the heart of the land, to conquer it once more. The city, even at the present day, exhibits abundant proofs of the exploits of this ruthless warrior, and mighty oppressor of Ireland. Every citizen can point out to the traveller the rock, opposite the town, from which he battered it with his cannon; and there yet stands, at the end of the quay, an old ruined tower, which bears traces of a breach made in it by Cromwell's artillery. How many similar breaches made by Cromwell in Irish walls still remain, as apparent as when his soldiers left them—and how many wounds inflicted by him on the political condition of the country are yet unhealed!


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Cromwell's time was almost contemporaneous with our Thirty Years' War, and may, in many respects, be justly compared with it; but the injuries inflicted on Germany by the latter have long been healed and forgotten; its devastating effects have long disappeared, and every thing has again long resumed its former aspect. It seems as if there were something peculiar in the nature and condition of Ireland that prevents her wounds from ever healing: she is constantly bleeding from a thousand wounds and sores; and although still clinging to life with too much tenacity entirely to die away, she never at any moment possesses energy enough completely to achieve her freedom, or restore herself to a more healthy state of existence.