Sir, – I refer to the correspondence from Pádraig McCarthy and Rev Marcus Losack about where St Patrick was from (November 18th and 19th). Rev Losack is sure he was from Brittany, and Pádraig McCarthy is not sure where he was from. It all turns apparently on the meaning of the place name Bannavem Taburniae. I have a solution to their problem. St Patrick was from Crosshaven, Co Cork.
The current Irish form of the place name Crosshaven is Bun an Tábhairne. The earlier name apparently was Cros tSeáin, ie “John’s Cross”. I believe the current name to be a simplification of Bun Abhann tSabhrainne. An tSabhrann was the old name for the River Lee. It looks curiously like the name of the Welsh river, the Severn. In Welsh that is Afon Hafren and in Latin, Sabrina. Bun Abha or Bun Abhann is to be found all around Ireland. When it precedes the name of a river, it means the place where the particular river runs into the sea. In Irish the principal stress would have been on tSabh- of tSabhrainne. I’m suggesting that because the principal stress would have been on tSabh-, and because Bun Abha/Bun Abhann is so common all around Ireland, Abhann could have been reduced to an, as happens with the prepositional pronoun ann in Munster dialects. An then would have been understood as the masculine article, and in ordinary pronunciation an is reduced to a’ before a consonant. For example, fear an tí is ordinarily pronounced fear a’ tí. The word tábhairne in Munster Irish is pronounced tá-irne.
So there you have it. St Patrick was a Corkman! No wonder they couldn’t understand him up north, or down the west, and he never ventured into Kerry. I think he may have been the first Corkman to make it big in Ireland. He was “from it” as they used to say in the civil service. Eat your heart out Wales and Brittany! – Yours, etc,
SÉAMAS de BARRA,
Beaufort Downs,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.