Your reference to the word 'Comer' interested me particularly, Pete, because for some time I've been trying to find the origin of the place name Camel Park in the townland of Shanballysallagh in the parish of Kilkeedy in Co.Clare. An elderly relative who was born and raised there and has, in recent years, proved to have an extremely good memory told me that her father told her that the little settlement they lived in used to be called Camel Park. I first thought she meant Carmel Park but she assured me that the name was 'Camel'. None of the other elderly local residents I exhaustively questioned was aware of this old name but because everything this relative has told me in the past has subsequently checked out with BMD records or gravestone inscriptions or other archive sources I'm persisting in my search for its origins. Searches at the Clare Library and the Local Studies Centre in Ennis failed to unearth the name. I started looking for Irish words which might sound like 'Camel' and came up with the following candidates: 1. Camas, Camus; anything that winds, a winding stream: from cam, crooked. (see http://indigo.ie/~rcd/placesc.htm) This could fit the settlement in Shanballysallagh because it is on the banks of a winding stream which forks there and forms an island. 2. The word 'cumar' means a confluence of rivers and retains other older connotations of an assembly or meeting place, and a place of celebration.(see http://www.worldzone.net/music/rudall/cumar.html) 3. Camal was a Celtic name ".....The gate keeper was Camal mac Riagail,(recall that this means "Sober, son of Rule")......." at http://www.summerlands.com/_members/blfsnhdtcqmgngstraoueieaoiuiioae/mem bers/uploads/Cltw42.txt 4. Maury, in his «Croyances et Légends», speaks of the existence of a “keltic god” ‘Camul’ or ‘Camal’, (http://www.skadi.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3651) 5. Cumhal was the name of a warrior. The legendary Fianna of Ireland were a band of mighty noble warriors. Entrance was governed by strict tests and codes of honour. Yet the Fianna also had to be knowledgeable of culture, and more specifically they had to be poets. Their leader, Fionn mac Cumhal, got his poetical and Bardic training from an old Bard Finnegas on the banks of the river Boyne (note he was close to water, the element which rules the intuition and emotions).(see http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1614/Celtwicc/Celts/celts02.htm) 6. A portion of land called the Cumhal Senorba was devoted to the support of widows, orphans and old childless people. (see Brehon laws at http://93.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BR/BREHON_LAWS.htm) Anyway, there it is for what it's worth. If any other listers have an explanation for the name "Camel Park" given to a tiny rural settlement in the West of Ireland I'd be pleased to hear it. Pádraig (the Paddy that was) -----Original Message----- From: IRL-GALWAY-L-request@rootsweb.com [mailto:IRL-GALWAY-L-request@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of PeteScherm@aol.com Sent: 22 November 2004 17:50 To: IRL-GALWAY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [GALWAY] Re: Castlecomer Pat at patvon@gtw.net writes: << Since I am researching the Comer family, I am curious about any connection to the name Castlecomer, which I have run across several times but know nothing about. >> Pat, I assume you're referring to the town of Castlecomer in Co. Kilkenny. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll get much help there. Without going into the extensive detail which John O'Donovan gives in his Ordnance Survey letter of August 1839, the end result is that the Comer referred to in the town name comes from Cumar/Chumair which means "a meeting of the streams". In fact, the name may come from "between the meetings of the streams, as the town is located between two such confluences. But, in any case, the Comer doesn't come from the surname (although some residents may have taken their surname from the town/townland/parish of Castlecomer <gr>). Pete Schermerhorn, in the glorious Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts ==== IRL-GALWAY Mailing List ==== To unsub or change your Irl-Galway mailing mode: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/IRL/IRL-GALWAY.html Join a new list related to the history, culture and geneology of the Irish in NY mailto:NY-IRISH-L-request@Rootsweb.com?body=subscribe ============================== OneWorldTree - The World's largest family tree. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13971/rd.ashx