Moneybroom, County Antrim
Origin
Ir. Móin na Bruíne ‘bog of the feasting hall’
Background
Moneybroom is in the extreme east of Magheragall parish, bordering Derryaghy and Blaris. It rises to 256 feet on its western boundary with Kilcorig townland. There are no early references to the name as it stands, and the earliest evidence for Moneybroom is Lendrick’s map in 1780. Petty’s map of Co. Antrim shows a Ballimoony in this area or possibly further west, which could equally be the Money- of this Moneybroom in Magheragall, or of Moneycrumog in Ballinderry. There is also a Ballymooney with Derryaghy townlands at the end of the list of lands belonging to Sir Fulke Conway in 1625. The final element –broom is a problem, only paralleled by the name of Tullybroom townland in Clogher, Tyrone. John O’Donovan thought here that it was an Irish borrowing of the English plant-name broom, but this is unlikely and it is not near the local name Broomhedge. The only early spelling of Tullybroom is tullabren in 1609, and it seems possible that both names contained bruidhean, now bruíon ‘a feasting hall, mansion’, with final –n later confused with –m. The names Ballibrinmore, Ballybrinmore were listed next to Drumsill townland in 1605 and 1609, with Broughmore in this position in 1661, thus probably referring to Broughmore townland in Blaris parish, south of Drumsill. However, these early forms do appear to contain bruíon, rather than brugh (bru) of similar meaning as in the modern name. Since there is in Moneybroom townland an oval platform probably representing the remains of an early monument, a ‘mound or raised rath on top of an E-W ridge, commanding superb views in an arc E-S-W & with a clear view of another mound to the north’ (NISMR), it seems possible that the name could be Móin na Bruíne ‘bog of the feasting hall’.
References
Kay MuhrAdditional Information
Historical name form
Old Form | Ref. Date | Reference |
---|---|---|
Ballimoony | 1672c | Hib. Del. Antrim |
Moneybroom | 1780 | Lendrick Map |
~Muine Brúm ""brake of the broom"" | 1832c | J O'D (OSNB) A26 171 |
~Muine-brúim ""shrubbery of the bloom(plant)"" | 1913 | Joyce iii 510 |
- Barony
- Massereene Upper
- Parish
- Magheragall
- Parish in 1851
- Magheragall
- Townland
- None
- Place name ID
- 10810
- Place name type
- T