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John Walsh of Graig

CorkTempleroan (Cork)

My Great-Great-Grandfather, John Walsh wasborn in 1815 to Edmund Walsh and Norry Riordan in the Townland of Shanbally, Doneraile, Cork. They moved to Graig at some point as his sister Norry was born in 1817 in Graig. I have John listed in Griffith's Valuation in Graig, and on my Great-GrandfatherJames Walsh's marriage record in 1872 he is listed as being from Graig. My Great-Grandfather moved to Ballintlea North soon after, as all his children's birth records say they are from Ballintlea (often spellled Ballinslay). I do have a couple questions that I hope someone can answer: 1) is Shanbally now known as Shanballymore? I noticed while pouring through the Doneraile baptismal book that there were a boat load of Walsh's from Shanbally (this was back in the 1800's). 2) Why is Ballintlea sometimes spelled Ballinslay/Ballinslea? Is Ballinslay how it's pronounced? I look forward to hearing from anyone!

-Thomas McCarthy

Thogjr

2 replies

Many placenames are  Anglicised versions of the old names in Irish - the Irish for Ballintlea is 'Baile an tSléibhe' (placename database Logainm.ie - 'bh' is pronounced like a v in English)... the 't' sound is possibly omitted at times.  My guess regarding the town of Shanbally/Shanballymore is that the 'more', which is Irish for big, was added at some point to distinguish it from another place named Shanbally. Locals could have refered to their own town as just Shanbally (literal translation would be something like Old Town).

shanew147IrelandXO Volunteer

Many thanks!

Thogjr

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