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9. Contact Us

Cork Place Names Survey was established in 1996 by Dr. Éamon Lankford to undertake the collection and mapping of the minor placename heritage of Co. Cork. Áitainmneacha Chiarraí / Kerry Place Names was formed in 2000 to conduct a similar Place Names Survey in Kerry. The voluntary Cork and Kerry Place Names Survey group incorporates a two county Survey Team known as Logainmneacha Chorcaí / Cork Place Names Survey for Cork County and Suirbhé Áitainmneacha Chiarraí / Kerry Place Names Survey for County Kerry. The Steering Committee and Advisory Council is composed of people from Cork and Kerry who have come together to undertake the systematic collection and mapping of the placename heritage of both counties. The organising and co-ordination of both Surveys is carried out at An tÁras, 13 Dyke Parade, Cork. Before the close of 2009 the placenames collected and mapped from both oral and documented sources in both counties will be deposited in a County Place Names Archive being established within the County Library network in both Cork and Kerry.

The historical and cultural profile of townlands, parishes, counties and even countries can be given greater depth and richness through study of the etymology of placenames. Much of the thought, folklore, genealogy, religion, daily life and work of those living on and interacting with their landscape can be appreciated through placenames study. Placenames can also provide an insight into the climate, flora and fauna of the region studied.

Recent changes in Irish agricultural and fishing practices, urban spread, housing development schemes, afforestation, rural depopulation and road building, have irrevokably altered the landscape and man's relationship with it. This generation is faced with an unique opportunity and challenge to reconsider and record the changing relationship between Irish people and their environment.

The collecting, recording and mapping of minor place names are the essence of heritage preservation. An important key to the past is being preserved in a most sophisticated and advanced technological way by the Cork and Kerry Place Names Survey.

The organising of a townland by townland Place Names Survey involves huge community support. Everyone can participate. Teachers, parents, students, farmers and fishermen, Cork and Kerry people, at home and abroad, all have a part to play in the completion of Survey Maps. Individuals, Schools, Community organisations willing to make submissions and any others who may be able to help organise a place name survey within their own parish are invited to contact the Survey Team.

Details and Survey Maps will be sent, once you let us know the name of the Townland about which you may have local knowledge. You can also submit listings of names but to have their locations identified would be a great help.

Details of the school based Place Names Survey, Suirbhé Áitainmneacha na Scol will be sent on request to Primary and Postprimary teachers who can also request a school visit by the Survey Team. The Survey methodology is particularly suited to Primary Schools and Project Work for students in Transition Year or those taking the 'My Own Place' module in the LCVP programme.

All names in Irish or in English given to manmade and natural features in the Cork and Kerry rural and urban landscape and the lore attached to such minor names are being collected and their location mapped. Names of fields, hills, wells, streams, rocks, heights, slopes, hollows, lakes, bogs, caves, laneways, cross-roads, boundaries, house-ruins, roads, pathways, etc are included. Most farmers have or had names on every field and feature and many of these may now no longer be used by the community, hence the urgency of recording them.

Ownership names that are now obsolete, as well as old names that were used before the amalgamation of fields into larger units are included in the Place Names Survey. Street names and names which may be known only to a few people in a family or those names used only by young people to describe their local areas are all being collected, as well as the lore attached to such names

The completed survey will be produced in bound volumes on a Parish by Parish, Townland by Townland basis and will contain listings of the placenames submitted, location maps and folklore of the names. It will also record the names of suppliers and collectors of names. The compilation will be available in a County Place Name Archive to be set up within the Cork and Kerry County Library network and it will be a resource for local and community development, as well as for academic research. This will constitute a small step in the preservation of a long neglected area of Irish culture.

Cork & Kerry Place Names Survey is a voluntary grouping that invites community participation in the collection of placenames in all parts of Cork and Kerry. The Survey Committee is obliged to raise funds annually so as to engage fieldworkers to collect names and young graduates to undertake research and attend to cartographic and other aspects of the Survey. The Survey Team invite corporate Sponsorship and financial assistance from Cork and Kerry people at home and abroad. People willing to provide funding for a placename survey of their home parish are invited to contact the Survey Office. Assistance towards the cost of the Survey will be much appreciated and appropriately acknowledged for prosterity in the Place Names compilation

Once the Survey Team make contact with people in a particular parish / townland who are interested in local history and community development, an attempt is made to organise a local place names survey. The Survey Director will arrange a public meeting, a lecture or public appeal or a school place name survey in association with a community group, historical society, development association, teachers etc. Anyone willing to assist with the organising of surveys in any part of counties Cork or Kerry is invited to contact the survey team