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Irish Names of Places
by
P.W. JOYCE
JOYCE, P.W. Irish Names of Places. With a
new introductory essay on the life of P.W. Joyce by Mainchín
Seoighe. Three volumes. Dublin, De Búrca, 1995. Pages, (1) xl,
589, (2) viii, 538, (3) x, 598. Mint in full buckram gilt and in
slipcase. €120.00
We are delighted to announce our reprinting of Joyce's monumental three-volume compilation on Irish Names of Places. This work is enhanced with a new introductory essay by Mainchín Seoighe on the life of that noted scholar from county Limerick, P.W. Joyce.
This is the first work ever written on the subject, and is a marvel of industry, patience and accuracy.
In the preface to the third volume, Dr. Joyce says: "Indeed my notes on this subject from all sources would be enough to astonish any person looking through them - enough indeed to alarm one at the idea of classifying and using them ... The great name system, begun thousands of years ago by the first wave of population that reached our island, was continued unceasingly from age to age till it embraced the minutest features of the country in its intricate network; and, such as it sprang from the minds of our ancestors, it exists almost unchanged to this day".
Dr. Joyce further states: "These volumes comprise what I have to say concerning Irish Local Names; for I have noticed all the principal circumstances that were taken advantage of by the people of this country to designate places; and I have explained and illustrated, as far as lay in my power, the various laws of name-formation, and all the important root-words used in building up the structure".
Mainchín Seoighe states - "P.W. Joyce followed in the footsteps of Bunting and Petrie, of O'Donovan and O'Curry, reaching, however, a larger public than any of these four had reached, for the fields he laboured in were more numerous and, as well as that, he principally wrote not for scholars but for the ordinary people of Ireland, people such as he had known in that lovely and never-forgotten countryside round about Glenosheen".
It therefore gives us great pleasure to announce a new edition of the entire work, printed on the best quality paper by Betaprint of Dublin and bound in full buckram gilt by Antiquarian Bookcrafts, also of Dublin.
Updated: November 17, 2005 © Deburca 2003