Eigse Paged 2004 - National University of Ireland

SETTLEMENT IN MEDIEVAL IRELAND 27
attempted, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to push the emergence of
the element back as far as the ninth or tenth century. 8
Baile is extremely rare in placenames before the twelfth century.
The earliest datable examples I have found come from the eleventhcentury
version of Táin Bó Cúailnge in Lebor na hUidre. 9 One of the
itineraries written in hand M in that manuscript mentions a place
called Baile, and in later manuscripts of the same version we find a
Baile and a Baile in Bili. 10 Baile in Bili occurs in a poem which, as it
stands, is hardly any older than the eleventh century. There is no context
to determine a meaning for baile here, but a translation ‘place of
the great tree’ is certainly plausible. The two occurrences of Baile
probably refer to a single place. 11 This is a peculiar name regardless
of whether we take it as meaning ‘place’ or some kind of settlement:
there is no qualifier as is invariably the case with baile-names, and it
lacks the definite article. 12 This irregularity and doubt as to its meaning
must exclude it from further consideration in the present discussion.
A number of eleventh- or early twelfth-century texts contain references
to baile-settlements. For example, the Irish Life of St
Patrick, Bethu Pátraic, which may have been compiled as late as c.
1100 A.D. from earlier materials, recounts that a certain Victor
slipped out of Domnach Maigen (Donaghmoyne) and concealed
himself in a thorn bush beside the baile (hitaeb inbaili) so as to avoid
an encounter with St Patrick. 13 Baile here is apparently used with
specific reference to a settlement, but no details are included. In all
8
Flanagan, ‘Common elements: baile’ 9.
9
But note also the name Tráig Baile the second element of which, however, is
traditionally explained as the personal name Baile mac Buain (The Book of Leinster
formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, ed. R. I. Best, Osborn Bergin, and M. A. O’Brien,
6 vols (Dublin 1954-83), ll 4029, 34610). The name is attested in the Annals of the
Four Masters under the year 1104 (Annála Ríoghachta Éireann: annals of the kingdom
of Ireland by the Four Masters [AFM], ed. John O’Donovan, 7 vols (Dublin
1848–51) II 978).
10
Baile (Táin Bó Cúailnge Recension I, ed. Cecile O’Rahilly (Dublin 1976)
l. 127), in búadach Baili (ibid. l. 3790), Baili in Bili (ibid. l. 2923).
11
ibid. p. 307.
12
See Gregory Toner, ‘The definite article in Irish place-names’ Nomina 22 (1999)
5-24.
13
tanic Uictor do imgabáil Pátraic asin port co rraboi i mmuiniu draigin boí i tóeb
in baili (Bethu Phátraic: the Tripartite Life of Patrick, ed. Kathleen Mulchrone
(Dublin 1939) 111 (= Whitley Stokes, The Tripartite Life of Patrick 2 vols (London
1887) I 182. 10-12 where baile is translated ‘stead’). On the dating of the text see
David Dumville et al., Saint Patrick A.D. 493-1993 (Woodbridge 1993) 255-8.