Know Your Place – An Exploration of the Placenames of Ireland

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh’s love of Irish place names began when he was seven or eight. A friend told him that he and his family were going on holidays to Ballyhornan. “Where’s that?” Seoirse asked, and his friend pointed in the direction of some far-away hills. “Over there”, he said. It was a green, misty region of rolling hills and tree groves. Seoirse repeated the mantra in a whisper; “Ballyhornan, Ballyhornan, Ballyhornan…”. It was a similar enchantment to that which the American sailors experienced in the musical South Pacific to “Bali Ha’i”, a mystical island, visible on the horizon but not reachable – an exotic paradise. Ballyhornan was Seoirse’s Bali Ha’i.