Peta shoulda done betta!

*Disclaimer note: I mean no disrespect to Peta or any other organisation/individual and I am very much an animal lover, but also an avid defender of the value of place-names. I therefore hope that the following post is interpreted in the tongue-in-cheek way that is intended*

I honestly didn’t think that I’d be writing another post so soon, but this is too good (or perhaps bad) of a story not to share. It starts with a number of recent news articles (one from the independent available here) that reported on a story that animal rights activists had targeted the English village of Wool in Dorset to change its name to ‘Vegan Wool’ to take a stand against cruelty to sheep. Here is an excerpt from their original letter:

‘With a simple name change, your village can take a stand against this cruelty and remind everyone that it’s easy to stay warm and be warm-hearted to sheep by choosing vegan wool and other animal-free materials’

Am I the only person that thinks such a request is ridiculous (further musings below). As it turns out Peta were politely and quickly informed their complainants that the origin of their place-name makes no reference to any harm done to our furry friends, but in fact derives from an Anglo Saxon word for a spring.  A simple google search spits out the following:

‘The place-name ‘Wool’ is first attested in Anglo-Saxon Writs from 1002 to 1012, where it appears as Wyllon. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it appears as Wille and Welle, and as Welles in 1212 in the Book of Fees. The name means ‘springs’ in the sense of the related word wells’

Now I am in no way advocating the sole use of Wikipedia for onomastic (or any other meaningful) research. However, a quick google search is often a decent starting point and in this case might have saved Peta a few red faces.

Now returning to my original reason to eat into another morning of my working day with my long-winded rambling. Is it right that some are demanding change of place-names so as not to cause offence? Even if it were true that ‘wool’ referred to the practice of sheep shearing, surely such a name should be preserved as a treasure that acts as a permanent record of the past (parking this post for another day as I could write a book on some of these….)

Now back to the animal rights activists, I wonder if they have heard the story of Táin Bó Cualnge ‘Cattle Raid of Cooley’, the story of Queen Maeve, the warrior Queen of Connaught who brought an army to Ulster to take a bull from Co. Louth. Now she never got the bull but according to the story he ended up killing another bull in Connaught and lifted its mangled body on his horns. Now this is where I expect our animal-loving (let’s call them place-name enthusiasts) to be withholding a world of outrage. Places all over Ireland are named from where parts of the bull’s body fell off: Waterford (Port Láirge ‘port of the thigh’), Athlone (Áth Luain ‘fort of the loin’). At Dublin, the bull’s rib-cage fell off from which the modern Irish name Baile Átha Cliath ‘settlement of the ford of the framework’ is derived. The bull then headed home and died of exhaustion at Droim Tairbh ‘the bull’s ridge’ (Drumhariff, Co. Down), also recognised in nearby Edendarriff (Éadan Tairbh ‘hillbrow of the bull’). Surely we are on the cusp of a bullfighting epidemic in Ireland unless we change these names. Lock up your bulls!

And while we are at it, someone should inform the Human Rights Commission of the names of Butcher Hill and Murder Hole in Co. Antrim (named after the slaughter of Protestants in the revolution of 1641) and of Lurganare in Co. Down derived from Lorga an Áir  ‘the tract of the slaughter’, Glenanair (Gleann an Áir ‘glen of the slaughter’) on the borders of Limerick and Cork and Coumanare (Com an Áir ‘hollow of the battle’) in Co. Kerry.

For the activists, I get you and have massive respect for your cause, but for goodness sake, leave our place-names alone!!