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The Anglo-Norman’s in County Wexford: Evidence from the Toponymic Landscape

  • Annie Mary Jowett (Invited speaker)

Activity: Talk or presentation typesInvited talk

Description

County Wexford was the bridgehead in the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland at the end of the twelfth century, and the county was heavily colonised. The Anglo-Normans regularly used the Old English word tūn, later ‘town’ when coining new placenames, and combined it with an Anglo-Norman personal name or a surname (of English or French origin). At the end of the fifteenth century, the Irish repossessed the north of the county. In the process of gaelicisation, the Anglo-Norman element ‘town’ was translated to baile in Irish, and baile is found in historical records in the transliterated forms bally- or balli­ in English. In this paper, the lasting influence of the Anglo-Norman conquest on the toponymic landscape in County Wexford will be demonstrated by exploring Anglo-Norman placenames that contain the element bally-/balli- or town and their distribution throughout the county.
Period13 Apr 2023
Event titleBorderlines XXV
Event typeConference
LocationBelfast, United KingdomShow on map