Place-names and Politics : The 1st Ordnance Survey, Part 3

 

 ‘Ulster-Scots’ criticism of the Ordnance Survey : 

In recent times it has been reported that the 1^st Ordnance Survey has come under criticism from Ulster-Scots groups.

The geographer David Polley has written a M.Litt on Ulster-Scots place-names in Ulster which provides us with a useful critique of the Ordnance Survey from the Ulster-Scots viewpoint.

Polley (2000, 108) has claimed that ‘Ulster-Scots may have been ‘edited out’ of the official place-name record,’ referring specifically to the place-name forms chosen by the Ordnance Survey.

For example, referring to Kircubbin, Ards, Co. Down, Polley states …

[D]espite a two hundred year history of use the Kirk form was dropped by the Ordnance Survey (specifically John O’Donovan), on the grounds that it ought to be Kircubbin … The old (and more Scots) of Kirkcubbin is still used by the Presbyterian church and the Orange lodge in the village, and this off hand swipe by O’Donovan is often quoted to show his bias against the Ulster-Scots language (Polley 2000, 109).

Polley interprets O’Donovan’s decision to chose the form Kircubbin over the ‘more Scots’ form as a ‘swipe’ at the Ulster-Scots language.

Yet, as O’Donovan points out,  if he had followed the normal modus operandi of the Ordnance Survey, he would have proposed the form ‘Carcubbin’[1] (NIPNP vol. II p. 92, Polley 2000, 109).

It is true that O’Donovan expressed negative views towards what he termed ‘Scotch’ speech[2], for example he described Hurtletoot, Antrim, Co. Antrim as a ‘Scotch barbarism’[3].

However, it can be seen that O’Donovan held negative views of newly coined names when these ‘fancy’ names replaced the original Irish name, regardless of language[4].

The number of townland[5] names originating in the Scots language is quite low, even according to Polley’s research, which makes occasional errors in the identification of Scots elements.

His research shows Scots elements in place-names are to be found in their highest percentages in minor names, i.e. non administrative names.

He interpreted the difference in the percentages of Scots elements to be found in minor place-names and townlands, which are administrative units, as evidence of under-recording of Scots place-names by the survey.

This is founded on a misunderstanding of the role of the first Ordnance Survey which collected relatively few minor names in any language being a mapping exercise concentrating on administrative divisions.

In addition, the nature of the Plantation, involving large-scale transfer of land ownership, mitigated against the replacement of townland names of Irish language origin with those of Scots or any other origin as McKay (2009, 18-19) explains :

Given the great numbers of Scottish immigrants who settled in Ulster from the seventeenth century onwards this fairly low rate of influence may seem surprising. However, it reflects the fact that at the beginning of the seventeenth century the native Irish townland unit was accepted by the government as the basic administrative unit and the original townland names were given official status in the grants and patents which conferred legal title to the land. It was therefore something of a legal imperative for the Scottish settlers to adopt the native Irish townland names and it is no surprise that for the most part they followed this course rather than inventing new names of their own[6].

It was this legal adoption of the Irish townland for administrative purposes, normally with a form of its original name at the time of the Plantation which explains the lack of Scots place-names inNorthern Irelandrather than a deliberate policy on the part of the Survey.

However, whilst there is no evidence to  suggest ‘that the Ordnance Survey indulged in a significant under-recording of Ulster-Scots place-names’ per se, it does seem to be the case that Scots words / forms such as brig (bridge) and loanen (lane) were not recorded in Scots orthography but written in Standard English, the de facto official language of administration.

A critical factor in Scots language elements being anglicised, or closely related English language forms being given in preference, is the fact that ‘[t]he authorities entered [into the Ordnance Survey Name-books] were more often than not the names of the elite, ministers, doctors, respectable farmers, gentry, magistrates, officers of the British army, teachers and heads of councils’ (Ó Cadhla, 219).

These ‘elites’ would be highly unlikely to furnish the survey with Scots language forms since Standard English was a sign of cultural superiority and education.

Another factor to be taken into account is that many of the Scots planters in Ulster came from areas of Scotland such as Galloway (Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) and the Machars (Machair) in which place-names of Gaelic origin are the norm.