Saints and Halls

Saints

The names of three holy women - Sgire, Liadhán (the mother of Saint Ciarán), and Cuach - have survived in the names of Kilskyre, Killyon, and Kilcock. (The last, though not in county Meath, is close enough to be worth mentioning). St. Schiria (Sgire) founded a famous monastery which is mentioned in The Annals of the Four Masters. She died towards the end of the 6th century and her festival is on the 24th March.

The ancient name for the place now named Skryne was Achaill or Aichill. In 875 the shrine of St. Columbcille, containing his relics, was brought from Iona to the monastery at Achaill in Meath to protect it from the Danes. Achaill's name was changed to Scrín Coluim Cille to commemorate the desposition of his relics here. Later the name was shortened to Scrín, and rendered into English as Skryne or Skreen.

Joyce on the origins of the name of Clonard gives us the following - "Clonard in Meath, where the celebrated St. Finian had his great school in the sixth century, is called in all the Irish authorities, Cluain-Eraird, from which the present name has been contracted. Many have translated this as "The retirement on the western height;" but this is a mere guess, and at any rate could not be right, for the site of the establishment is a dead flat on the left bank of the Boyne. According to Colgan, Erard was a man's name signifying "noble, exalted, or distinguished, and it was formerly not unfrequent among the Irish. He then states that this place was so called from some man named Erard, so that Cluain-Eraird signifies 'Erard's meadow'."

Halls

Uladh, in old Irish, meant a tomb. Later, the word was applied to the tomb of a saint over which was raised a cairn or a stone altar where pilgrims came to pray or perform penances. According to Joyce, many places are named for such tombs, for example, Killulla in Clare is the church of the tomb.

Sometimes, if there was more than one grave or altar, the word uladh was used in the plural and was translated into English as The Ullas. Joyce gives the name of a place in county Leitrim as Halls, and explains that, in this case, the Irish form of the plural Na hUlladha was partly adopted in the English translation.

There are at least two townlands in Meath which may have acquired their names in this way - Halltown, Dunderry, and Hallstown in the Barony of Ratoath; and there is a Gathahall in the parish of Ballivor.

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