Maybe May (or May-be not)

The Celtic Festival of Bealtaine (perhaps Béal Tine ‘mouth of the fire) marks the beginning of summer in the ancient Celtic calendar and was was marked with the lighting of bonfires and the movement of animals to summer pastures. While the Festival of ‘Beltane’ is now associated with May 1st, the actual astronomical date is a number of days later. The festival is however commemorated all year round in the townlands of Beltany, Co. Tyrone. Next door in Co. Donegal, there are another two Beltanys, one of which boasts an impressive Megalithic stone circle. Although not quite as awe-inspiring, Beltany in the parish of Cappagh, Tyrone does contain a Megalithic Tomb at Cloghogle which derives from Cloch Tógala, literally ‘building stone’ but intepreted in place-names as  ‘townland of the Dolmen’ which is particularly apt here.

Back then to the theme for the day that’s in it, Mayday and the element May- in place-names which in fact almost never refers to the Month of May. Many instances of May- in place-names can be attributed to an original form containing the Irish element magh ‘plain’ (earlier má,and often appearing in the oblique form maigh). Some examples include Mayboy (Maigh Buí ‘yellow plain’) and Mayo (Magh Eochaill ‘plain of the yew’) in Co. Derry. Note also Maigh Eo ‘plain of the yew-trees’ which appears as Mayo in Co. Down and is also true of the the County which is documented as such as far back as the 8th century, and nearby Mayobridge (Droichead Mhaigh Eo ‘bridge of the plain of the yew trees’) which for some reason, has undergone partial translation. There are also two Maydowns from Máigh Dúin ‘plain of the fort’ in Cos Armagh and Derry.

Maynooth in Co. Armagh might at first be explained with Maigh Nuad ‘Nuadha’s plain’, following the same name in Kildare. A little bit of digging however, reveals historical forms such as Mullinalaghan (1661) and Mullanalaghan (1610) and an original form Mullach na Lachan ‘hilltop of the duck’, possibly replaced by a landlord in a nod to the Kildare Maynooth.

Less straight-forward, however are the townland names Maytown and Maytone which may have emerged via a process of analogy with settlement place-names such as Boydstown, Co.Armagh, and that the original name was Irish, perhaps Maigh Tamhain‘plain of the tree trunk’, Maigh Togháin‘plain of the pole-cat’ or Maigh Tóine‘plain of the bottom land’.

Or is this an example of May in a real examples of an Anglo-Norman settlement name,  a compound of the English word tūn ‘settlement’ (which gives us the English word town) and the English family name May, derived from the Middle English male personal name May, from Middle English female personal name May (possibly a pet form of Mary or Margaret), or indeed that elusive instance of the Month of May, maybe not…..

Originally published 1 May 2019