Clanrolla, County Armagh

Background

The earlier spelling of Clanrolla (as on the 1609 map, CPR Jas. I 1610, and Inq. Ult. Arm. 1621) is Clonedroll, later losing the middle vowel and gaining a final one: Clonrole etc, from 1657 on.  The present spelling may have been influenced by the townland of the same name in Shankill parish, and John O'Donovan, from the evidence available to him, suggested the same original for both: Cluain Rothla, ‘Rothla's meadow’ (OSNB).  In this case, however, the evidence for a second element beginning d- is straightforward and there is no need for Mooney’s Irish suggestion for the early spellings: Cluain Eadarghabhail ‘meadow between forking streams’ (Mooney MS).  The masculine word drol, gsdrola means ‘loop, ring, link, handle’ (Ó Dónaill).Mooney’s publication on Seagoe gives Cluain Drola ‘meadow of the windings’ (Mooney 1954, 21), while Dinneen’s dictionary lists drola as a Scottish and East Ulster variant of drol.  Mooney continued,‘There is another Clanrolla in the neighbouring parish of Shankill which seems to be of different origin, and it may be that one has exercised some influence on the form of the other’ (p.21).

References

Additional Information

Historical name form

Barony

Oneilland East

Parish

Seagoe

Parish in 1851

Seagoe

Townland

None

Place name ID

11250

Place name type

T