The Fourteen Names of Ireland

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The Fourteen Names of Ireland, from The History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating, translated by John O'Mahony, 1857.

1. The first name given to Ireland was "Inis-na-ffidbadh" (Inish-na-Veevah) i.e., The Isle of Woods; and the person that gave it this name was a champion of the people of Nin the son of Pel, who was sent by him to explore Ireland, and who, on his arrival, found the country one unbroken forest, except Magh-n-elta (Moy-nelta) alone.

2. The second name was "Crioch-na-ffuinedach" (Creeagh-na-vunnayagh) i.e,. the Country of the Remote, i.e., the Extreme Land, from its being at the end, i.e., fuinedh, or extremity of the three parts of the world then known.

   

3. The third name was "Inis-Elga," i.e. the Noble Island. It was during the time of the Fer-Bolgs that it was usual to call it by this name.

4. The fourth name was "Eri" (Airi), which, according to a certain author, it received from Aeria, an old name of the island for some time after Sru, son of Esru, son of Gaedal, had been banished out of Egypt, whence the Gaels or Gaedalians had emigrated. However, it is the common opinion of our historians, that it received the name from a queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns, whose name was Eri. This was Eri, daughter of Delbaeth, the wife of Kethor, who was styled Mac Grèni, (i.e., son of Grian or the Sun,) and who was king of Ireland when the sons of Miledh invaded it.

5. The fifth name of Ireland was "Fodla" (Fola), so called from Fodla, who was also a queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns, and who was the wife of Mac Kèact, (i.e., son of the Plough,) whose real name was Tèthor.

6. The sixth name it received was "Banba" from Banba, another queen of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns. She was the wife of Mac Coill, whose real name was Tèthor. These three kings of the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns held the sovereignty of Ireland alternatively every third year; and the reason why the island is more frequently called Eri than Fodla or Banba, is because it was the husband of the woman named Eri that was king of Ireland during the year in which the sons of Miledh arrived therein.

7. The seventh name is "Inis-Fail." It was the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns that gave it this name, from a stone they brought to Ireland themselves, called Lia Fail, otherwise the Stone of Destiny. This is the "saxum fatale," i.e., Stone of Fate, of which Hector Boethius speaks in his History of Scotland. This was an enchanted stone; for whenever the men of Ireland were assembled at the Great Council of Tara, to elect a king over them, it used to give forth a loud cry beneath the person whose right it was to obtain the sovereign power. But it has emitted no cry since the time of Concobar; for when Christ was born, all the false idols of the world were struck dumb. Here follows a quotation from the [10th-century] poet Kinneath, which proves that Ireland received the name Inis-Fail from this stone:

"From this stone now beneath my feet

Men have named our Isle of Fál;

And Eri, between both swelling seas,

Has thence been called the Plain of Fál."

1. The eighth name was "Muich-Inis" (Mooih-Innish), i.e., the Isle of Mist or Fog. This name was given to it by the sons of Miledh, before they succeeded in making their landing on its shores. For, when they had reached the mouth of Inber-Slangi, which is now called the bay of Loch-Garman (in English, Wexford Bay), the Tuatha-Dé-Dananns came against them with their Druids and practiced magic enchantments upon them, so that the invaders could only perceive the island lying before them in the likeness of a mist or dense fog. Hence they called the land Muich-Inis.

2. The ninth name was "Scotia." It was given to it by the sons of Miledh in honor of their mother, whose name was Scota, daughter of Pharaoh Nectonibus; or they called it Scotia because they were themselves the "Kiné Scuit," i.e., the progeny of Scot, from Scythia.

3. The tenth name was "Hibernia." It was the sons of Miledh that gave it this name also. Some, however, say that Ireland received the name Hibernia from a river of Spain, which was called Iberus (now the Ebro). Others say that it was so named from Eber, son of Miledh; but the holy Cormac Mac Culinain is of opinion that it received the name from the word "iber," i.e., western.

4. The eleventh name is "Juvernia," according to Ptolemy, or "Juverna," accordng to Solinus; "Ierna," according to Claudian; and "Vernia," according to Eustathius. But I think, myself, that there is no meaning in the distinctions made by these authors. The forms they give seem mere variations of the word "Hibernia." As they knew not where this word was derived, each of them gave his own conjecture thereupon, whence proceeded the above alterations of the name.

5. The twelfth name was "irin," according to Diodorus Siculus.

6. The thirteenth name was "Irlanda." It was so called, in my opinion, from Ir, son of Miledh, because Ir was the first of Miledh's sons who was buried beneath Irish earth. Hence they named the country after him. "Irlanda" is the same as "Land of Ir." We give the more credence to this, because the Book of Armagh tells that "Ireo" was one of the names of the island. "Ir eo" means the grave of Ir, i.e., "Uaigh Ir."

7. The fourteenth name was "Ogygia," according to Plutarch. "Ogygia" signifies the Very Ancient Isle. This is a name that is most applicable to Ireland, because it is a very long time since it was first inhabited, and because its historians have a perfect and authentic knowledge of its ancient history, consecutively, from its earliest times down to the present.

Geoffrey Keating, The History of Ireland, From the Earliest Period to the English Invasion, trans. John O'Mahony (New York: P.M. Haverty, 1857), 79-83.

Geoffrey Keating

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