The evening economy and Covid-19

The importance of the arts to daily living

When town centre managers talk about the night-time economy, they are referring to the businesses that provide catering, hospitality, entertainment and the arts - broadly speaking.

During the worst periods of the pandemic especially from March 2020 when the so-called R rate was above 1, death rates soared and health services in many countries were under huge pressure.  People were told to keep their distance and to stay at home. The evening economy was shut down.  

In many cases singers, musicians, actors, dancers and others - as well as their audiences - were deprived of working performances with venues large and small shut down for month after long month.  It led to hard times for a whole range of professional artists and performers.  

For the general public it has meant finding ways to be resilient in the face of loss, to deal with difficult times, and to celebrate what we have and love doing.

Arising from the unavailability of live artistic activity, some institutions found creative ways to keep the wheels of culture going in other ways.  From the privacy of their own homes, for example, classical music fans could avail of "virtual" concerts.  

Orchestras including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Mariinsky in St Petersburg and the Berlin Philharmonic broadcast a mixture of live performances from empty halls or recorded events from their extensive digital archives.  Universities provided night classes on-line.  And literary organisations, such as the Irish Times, provided live interviews with writers, sportspeople, and others for global audiences.

Since early summer 2021 and aided by the roll-out of vaccines especially in "first-world" nations, nights out in restaurants and in places of entertainment began to return with considerable support from the general public.  "Freedom Day" was the ultimate (and prophetically inaccurate) slogan of the U.K's Prime Minister as recently as July.  

The deprivation of nights out on the town has been gradually eased across the continent in recent months, culminating in the withdrawal of most restrictions as winter 2021/22 approaches.  In many parts of Europe, however, as people gather indoors avoiding the incoming cold season's elements, Governments' easements have coincided with a concerning (if predictable) deterioration in infection rates and the Delta variant.  

And looming on (perhaps above) the horizon are warnings of variant B.1.1.529, or Omicron. This is the latest and potentially most infectious variant of Covid, as illustrated by the early discovery of the first two cases in the U.K. on 27 November[i] and a larger number in the Netherlands[ii].  

Examples of summer 2021 reopening in Belfast

Cinema

Whereas my gym reopened on 30 April, it was mid-July before cinemas recommenced business here, with night-clubs having to wait a further 3-4 months.   Picture House audience numbers were initially restricted in July and August, which helped to make customers feel safer.  Two of the first three films that we saw in the QFT (Queens Film Theatre) were music documentaries, nostalgia being an appropriate if accidental theme. 

"Summer of Soul" is set in 1969 Harlem, the same year as the more heralded Woodstock festival. It presents brilliant performances from Mahalia Jackson, Fifth Dimension, Stevie Wonder, Mavis Staples, and many others.  A celebration of black American culture.  What a wonderful reintroduction to the joys of cinema.  

"Jazz on a Summer's Day" was a similar film, set a decade earlier at the 1958 Newport jazz festival - where everybody there seemed to enjoy smoking with impunity.  That aside, the cast list was a who's who of jazz - people in their youth like Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk and again Mahalia Jackson.

In between those two films, we went to see "The Courier," a superb political thriller based on the true story of businessman Greville Wynne and set against the background of the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 and the threat of nuclear war.  Depiction of the latter reminded me vividly of life as a 13-year-old in grammar school, in particular the day that almost became the start of World War 3.  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wynn with an outstanding performance.  The power of a movie to resurrect forgotten memories.

The best of three more recent films which we saw was Wes Anderson's superb "The French Dispatch."  We saw it a week prior to Halowe'en, when audience numbers were rather less restricted.  A little masterpiece set in Ennui-sur-Blasé (translating would be a bore, n'est-ce pas?) and with an impressive cast-list which included Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan and Owen Wilson.  Its quirkiness reminded me of the Oscar-winning Grand Budapest Hotel by the same director in 2014. 

Concerts

Most if not all symphony orchestras begin their annual season in mid-late September.  Given all of the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and consequent risks in the complex task of planning concerts arranging conductors and soloists, it was a substantial achievement for the Ulster Orchestra to open its 2021/22 season on schedule on its usual late September date.

We have attended four out of its first five concerts held in its home venue, the Ulster Hall.  Although audience numbers were relatively restricted for the 24 September and 8 October concerts, the later easing of restrictions on numbers has not, yet anyway, tempted full house sales. 

This despite strong repertoire which has included Dvorak's cello concerto, Brahms's Symphony number 4, Chopin's first piano concerto, Beethoven Symphony number 6, Korngold's violin concerto, Mozart's flute concerto number 1, Fanny Mendelssohn's overture in C Major, Schumann's Spring Symphony - with accomplished international soloists playing at each concert. 

Apart from having to wear face-masks during concerts, concert audiences receive programmes on-line rather than having to buy printed copies.  These sentences from the 25 November concert's programme notes caught my attention - and that of my wife.  They convey Robert Schumann's awareness of the enormous act he was following in daring to compose a symphony less than 15 years after the death of Beethoven:- 

"Schumann's Spring Symphony was an instant success.  His great friend Felix Mendelssohn conducted the world premiere in the Schumann's home city of Leipzig in March 1841.  And on 1 September that year, nine months after the conception of the Symphony Clara gave birth to the couple's first child, a daughter Marie."  

December 3's programme includes the magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky and Shostakovich's beatiful piano concerto number 2 with soloist Steven Osborne.  December continues with a series of festive concerts, one of which includes the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, and another being the annual performance of Handel's Messiah.

In addition to its annual programme, the Orchestra presents other events, often in collaboration with institutions like Northern Ireland Opera and the BBC.  One such recent event was the "Fanfare for the Makers" BBC Invitation Concert recorded in the Ulster Hall on Monday 8 November for Radio 3.  Its purpose was to celebrate the corporation's 40 years of partnership with the Ulster Orchestra.  

It consisted of a large programme of music (including some newly commissioned works by local composers) and poetry read by four well-known actors.  It was broadcast nationwide three days later.  This free concert attracted a full house and received a rapturous ovation.  Bigger audiences restore much-missed enthusiasm and a better atmosphere in the hall.

The Orchestra's recent announcement of 11 further concerts running from January and ending the season as normal in June 2022 will be music to its fans' ears.  We read that the Netherlands Government's new November/December restrictions prohibit the Concertgebouw Orchestra from performing evening concerts for the next three weeks (at least, possibly).  

Caution and continued adherence to public health advice during and beyond the festive season, it seems, remain the by-words if we want the evening economy to continue.

Nativity 2021 style

The other concert venue which we have visited recently is the city's 1895 Frank Matcham-designed landmark, The Grand Opera House.  As soon as its reopening after a £12m refurbishment was announced for early October, I deemed it essential to attend the opening show.  This was the West End production of the musical "Six," a modern girl-band take about the wives of King Henry the 8th. 

"Six" viewed from the gods, Grand Opera House Belfast 10 October 2021

The self-induced imperative to attend was driven by the previous big reopening approximately forty years ago when, after being bombed during the Troubles and closed for about four years, a group of ten of us travelled to Belfast from Omagh to see Rowan Atkinson (of Not the Nine O'Clock News and later Mr Bean fame) single-handedly spark a beginning of evening normality to a deprived and damaged city centre. 

Back to the present and with restrictions on audience numbers easing gradually, we attended two more events in the Opera House.  One was to see the Belfast International Festival event "The Great Irish Songbook,"[iii] with Sligo-based traditional music band Dervish centre stage. The large traditional ensemble was supported by a galaxy of Scottish and Irish talent like Glen Hansard, Eddi Reader, Cara Dillon, Karen Matheson, Brian Kennedy and Belfast's Open Arts Community Choir.  That was ten days before Halowe'en and the place was rocking.

We returned to the Opera House in early November. This performance was another West End musical, "Hairspray."  Unlike "Six" which was a 70 minute one-part show, meaning less opportunity for social interaction, "Hairspray" was a conventional two-part performance.  Such was the quality and liveliness of the latter, that it is a show which we would recommend and probably see it again.

The late spring and summer have given people the taste for a return to socialising, dining out, going to the cinema and to concerts.  Audiences support concert and cinema-going as a  stimulus to happiness and to good health.  Sláinte.  Anything that alleviates pressure on the National Health Service is positive.  Nowhere is this more applicable as it is to Northern Ireland which has a history of coping with hard times and with learning how to survive artistic and cultural lockdown. 

©Michael McSorley 2021

 

Postscript:-

Previous articles in this Covid-19 series include the following:- 

Part 1 (24 March 2020) A Test for Elected Leaders[iv] 

Part 2 (11 April 2020) Coping with Contagion, a Survival Strategy.[v]

Part 3 (30 April 2020) The New Vocabulary[vi]

Part 4 (21 May 2020) Following the Science[vii]

Part 5 (11 June 2020) Beautiful books[viii]

Part 6 (25 June 2020) Stone Circles[ix]

Part 7 (26 July 2020) Finding positives in a global crisis[x]

Part 8 (21 August 2020) Humour for the pandemic[xi]

Part 9 (28 September 2020) Holidays at Home[xii]

Part 10 (10 October 2020) The London Marathon[xiii]

Part 11 (30 October 2020) Hallowe'en[xiv]

Part 12 (21 November 2020) Discord and Division[xv]

 

References/links

[i] The Observer 28 November 2021 David Cox "It's not a twist on Delta as people were expecting but a worrying new thing" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/27/omicrons-full-impact-will-be-felt-in-countries-where-fewer-are-vaccinated

[ii] BBC News 28 November 2021 "13 test positive for Omicron after South Africa-Netherlands flights" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59451103

[iii] https://belfastinternationalartsfestival.com/event/the-great-irish-songbook/

[iv] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/03/a-test-for-elected-leaders.html

[v] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/04/coping-with-contagion-survival-strategy.html

[vi] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-new-vocabulary.html

[vii] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/05/following-science.html

[viii] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/06/beautiful-books.html

[ix] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-archaeology-of-stone-circles.html

[x] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/07/finding-positives-in-global-crisis.html

[xi] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/08/humour-for-pandemic.html

[xii] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/09/holidays-at-home.html

[xiii] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-virtual-london-marathon.html

[xiv] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-spirits-of-haloween.html

[xv] https://michaelcovid19.blogspot.com/2020/11/discord-and-division.html

Summer books

 Summer escapes

It's time to list seven of the best books I've read so far this year.

Distraction comes no better than being totally involved in a good book.  As mid-summer pass-times compete for our attention, reading is surely one of the most positive.  

And sometimes a novel can be so absorbing that the urge to tell everybody about it becomes overwhelming, the need to spread the joy through recommendation.

Non-fiction titles

Before revealing recent novels which have impressed, allow me to start with a few other works.  My reading year began - unusually and unplanned - with some non-fiction titles.  

The first of these was the hilarious "Tall tales and wee stories" written by Billy Connolly.  This collection of funny stories and reworked sketches resonated with the onset of a longest lockdown, the one which coincided with the darkest days of the new year.  Added poignancy arises from the realisation that the author is dealing with Parkinson's Disease.  This challenge was part of his motivation to write the book.  As the life-story of a much-loved comedian and actor, its humour provided comfort and plenty of belly laughs in trying times.

Next up came "Diary of a Young Naturalist" by the teenage Dara McAnulty.  This book is all about nature-writing, a diary of the four seasons, as well as a portrait of his close-knit family.  Its appeal, I suspect, arises not just from the author's beautiful use of language but also because everybody has become even more acutely aware of nature during the pandemic.  For one so young and dealing with autism, his power with words and his knowledge of local wildlife and the outdoors are a joyful revelation.  His clever references to poets underline his literary influences.  A sign of his growing reputation comes with the first in a new monthly column in the Irish Times (26 June 2021), more beautiful words about nature.

Continuing with non-fiction and keeping the standard at the highest level, I was delighted to get a copy of the brilliant "Thirty-two Words for Field" by the linguist and folklorist Manchán Magan.  This book is a paean to the richness and diversity of the Irish language.  These include not just the many words for different kinds of field but also numerous alternative words for other features.  He grabs readers' attention with learned descriptions of the ancient beliefs and folklore behind the vocabulary surrounding place-names natural features archaeological monuments and lots more.  He emphasises time after time with plenty of examples how the loss of linguistic words and phrases results in a loss of understanding of the nuances of our past, our heritage.  Magan is a genius, by turns fascinating, well informed and regularly amusing.

Novels

The book that I've just finished reading is "Still Life"  written by Val McDermid.  She is one of our most distinguished authors having won a range of prestigious awards, a leading exponent of the art of crime fiction.  She has a huge volume of published work, 16 millions books sold worldwide.  She has served as a judge of prestigious book prizes - all of which makes my admission that this book marks my first direct acquaintance with one of her books a bit shameful.  My overdue introduction was not disappointed with a pleasing array of characters and very Scottish setting - until, near the end, the drama switches to Ireland.  Her linking of locations in Donegal and Dublin almost caused me to collapse when the climax of the action switched to my home town, Omagh.  The author's pinpoint accuracy with geography delighted this reader.  Regardless of my parochial nostalgia, I have already bought her latest paperback.

The book I read prior to Still Life was "Whereabouts" written by another author new to me Jhumpa Lahiri.  It grabbed my attention in a press review (Helen Cullen Irish Times 8 May 2021) describing it with fulsome praise as "an early contender for book of the year."  This is a story narrated by an unnamed woman speaking about a year of her life in an unnamed city somewhere in Italy.  It consists of a series of vignettes about the minutiae of mundane occurrences at home, outside, in shops and public places - all fairly minimalist.  It's an easy to read account about a person whose life appears to involve social distancing in a pre-Covid era. 

Whereas Billy Connolly's book is the funniest non-fiction I have read so far this year, my pick for the most humerous novel goes to the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson's "Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd."  This is an author with whom I am familiar and like a lot.  In contrast to what has become the default setting of Scandinavian novel-writing, Nordic Noir, Jonasson deals in the polar opposite of bleak.  This story is the latest worthy successor from this author to his brilliant debut "The Hundred-Year-Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared."

The novel which has captivated me more than any other so far this year is the best-selling "Where the Crawdads Sing" written by Delia Owens.  It combines the best of nature writing with a suspenseful tale that combines heartache, romance, racial and social division, crime and a trial - along with life-affirming moments.  It paints what seems like an accurate description of the climate and ecology of the North Carolina coastal marshlands and you the reader are there observing.  Quite a combination of circumstances. This is a story which appeals to the senses.  At its core, it is a story of isolation and survival against long odds.  This resonates in various ways with the current era.  It will also appeal to parents and grandparents of a seven-year-old girl.  

©Michael McSorley 2021

The lore of notable places

Ulster's place-names

Introduction

Place-names are a cultural asset in Ireland, cherished by its citizens and a source of wonderment for visitors.  Attachment to place is embedded genetically.  It resonates in the poetry of William Butler Yeats, WF Marshall and Seamus Heaney. 

As one placename expert[i] (whose name translated means son of a bishop's servant) says

 

“the medieval Irish created a separate literary genre, the Dindshenchas, the lore of notable places (composed in the 10^th and 11^th centuries), devoted to the origins of names of renowned geographical features .....The vast majority are of Irish language in origin; others derive from English, while a small but significant number derive from Old Norse....Anglicisation and the Ordnance Survey’s 19^th century name standardisation rendered names unintelligible.  As a result scholarly work is required to correct forms.”

With four Provinces, 32 counties, 2428 civil parishes, 60462 townlands, hundreds of towns and villages, never mind the names of rivers lakes mountains ancient monuments and sacred sites, we possess a cornucopia of place-names.  Governments in Belfast[ii] and Dublin[iii] employ specialists to research, decipher, and translate the island’s toponyms. 

 

Lost in Translation: Interpreting Ulster’s Place-names 

With the welcome return of night classes at Queens University in Belfast 10 months after suspension, I jumped at the opportunity offered by this 10-week course.  Arising from my surname, I wanted to know more about the influence of the Vikings on our place-names.

  

In the first week we learned that

“Old Norse came to Ireland with the Vikings when they first attacked in 795AD... Norwegians firstly, later Danes...referred to in Irish as Fionnghall meaning fair foreigner and DubhGall meaning dark foreigner....”  

Ulster’s largest county contains that same suffix.  Donegal, Dún na nGall, means the foreigner’s fort or castle.  Aware of the Lost in Translation theme, the fact that Gall also translates to standing stone[iv] highlights the researchers’ interpretive role.  

And just to complicate the issue a little further, Donegal retains an alternative if lesser-used Gaelic name, Tír Chonaill, Tyrconnell (Conall’s land). One source[v] says that Tyrconnell is applied to the county’s Irish-speaking Gaeltacht which (relevant to the Vikings) is primarily coastal. 

Unlike Donegal, the name Tyrconnell has no explicit connection to Vikings. The Old Norse word for Tír (meaning land or country) is land.[vi]  Similarly, the Gaelic noun Gall bears no etymological resemblance to its Old Norse[vii] equivalent út-lænninge, utlending in modern Norwegian.

Surnames

Expanding on the class’s introductory example of DubhGall (anglicised as Doyle), other Norse-related surnames include MacLachlann (anglicised as McLaughlin) which means son of a Dane, and MacDubhghall (McDowell) meaning son of a dark stranger/foreigner. Ballyloughlin County Down[viii]  is the sole Ulster surname-to-place-name example of potential, if arguable, with Viking interest that I could find.

My family name is the best example that derives from Old Norse vocabulary – sumarliði or sumar lida.  This means summer warrior or sailor, a synonym for Viking.[ix]   The name survives in both Gaelicised (MacSomhairle McSorley) and in Anglicised forms (Somerled[x]).  It also exists in modern Iceland where, for example, Sulrún Sumarlidadottir is a string player on Sigur Ros albums.

The surname appears as a toponym on the Hebridean Isle of Skye.  Somerled Square (the anglicised version) and Ceàrnan Shomhairle (Scots Gaelic) are the bilingual names signposted in Portree (Port an Righ, King’s Port) town centre.  

And the Domesday Book mentions the Old Norse Sumerlida from which four settlements in three English counties[xi] derive their place-names.  They are Somerby in Leicestershire, Somerleytown and Somerton both in Suffolk, and Somersby in Lincolnshire.  I have no evidence of Somerled or Somhairle in Ulster place-names. 

There is, however, another place-name connection.  Historian Robert Bell explains that McSorley’s travelled to Ulster from Scotland.[xii]  He adds that most originate from Clan Donald MacSorleys who came as galloglasses between the 13^th and late 16^th centuries. They were one of the earliest such families to settle in Ulster.  Galloglasses were heavily-armed mercenary soldiers, originally Hebridean (Gaelic-Norse).  

Galloglass derives from two Scots Gaelic words - gall (foreigner) and óglach (young warrior-servant).[xiii]   Ballyalloly or Baile an Gallóglaigh lies between Carryduff and Comber, County Down less than six miles from my house.  Although the word galloglass “implies Norse origin, they (foreign soldiers) are more likely to have come from the Norse-influenced areas in the Hebrides and Gaelic Scotland.[xiv]” 

Ulster place-names of Norse origin

Three examples were presented in class.  I have added details including Gaelic equivalents:-

·         Strangford Lough derives from the Old Norse Strangr Fjörðr meaning strong sea-inlet.  The Irish Gaelic name is Loch Cuan, literally meaning Harbour Lough, arguably a synonym for strong sea-inlet;

·         Rathlin Island derives from the Old Norse Rechru.  My inconclusive efforts to uncover its meaning are appended.[xv]  The Annals of Ulster uses the Norse name when describing the first recorded site of a Viking raid in Ireland in 795 AD as the “burning by the heathens.[xvi]” The Gaelic derivative from Rechru is Reachlainn, meaning “indented/rugged island[xvii]”; and

·         Carlingford is derived from the Old Norse Kerlingfjorðr[xviii] meaning narrow sea-inlet of the hag.  It translates into Irish as Loch Cairlinn.  The Irish word for hag, Cailleach, is similar but different.  My research finds no English meaning for the lake’s name (Cair), although its Gaelic suffix linn translates as lake/pool.  Coincidentally, Dublin’s original Gaelic name is DubhLinn, literally deep pool. The Annals of Ulster recorded that in 841AD the Vikings had a stronghold (longphort) there and built the first town[xix] (WoodQuay).[xx]

Old Norse place-names – more examples 

The Provincial name, Ulster, is an Old Norse derivative.  Historian Jonathon Bardon explains that Ulster’s rulers were called the Ulaidh.  This was a tribal name, he says, recorded as Voluntii about 150AD by Ptolemy of Alexandria (Egypt) in his geography of Ireland.  I’m intrigued by the apparent morphing of the Latin Voluntii to Ulaidh (never mind the concept of Ulster Volunteers).

The Vikings named the land of the Ulaidh Uladzstir, mixing their pronunciation with the Irish word tír, meaning land or country.  When the Normans and English invaded in the twelfth century, they adopted the Viking version.  As Bardon explains,[xxi] Uladztir became anglicised to Ulster.  This is endorsed by Patrick McKay who concludes that the form Uladztir originates in Norse.[xxii]

Whereas the Norse-derived surname MacSomhairle transliterates to form place-names, Uladh reverses that process.  Surnames like McCullagh and McAnulty borrow Uladzstir to produce Mac Con Uladh.  Ulster’s Norse place-names survive in some surnames and vice versa.

Between Hilltown and Kilkeel County Down sits the townland of Stang (An Stang in Irish).  Stang derives from the Old Norse word stöng meaning[xxiii] a measure of land such as a rood or an acre.  My Old Norse dictionary defines stöng as a pole/staff.[xxiv]

A Tyrone place-name uses the same prefix Stang as a noun with a Gaelic adjective suffixed.  Stangmore (An Stang mór, a big piece of land), lies outside Dungannon, County Tyrone.   No Stangbeg exists in Ulster.

The word stadium is one English translation listed for Stang.  This makes Stangmore Park, the home ground of Dungannon Swifts Football Club more interesting, serendipitous perhaps.  The modern Irish word for stadium is staid[xxv] which, because it sounds like an English derivative, makes its appeal less noir than the Nordic Stang.

One wonders about connections of inland Stang and Stangmore to the Vikings.  A topic for further investigation – maybe using archaeology.

Archaeological evidence

No pun intended, but I harbour hopes of discovering an Ulster place-name referencing that quintessential object, a Viking longship, perhaps buried somewhere.  I’m sure I have read or heard about such a discovery aided by place-name evidence.  Whereas long fhada (literally ship long) is the Gaelic term, the sole toponymic reference I could find is Annalong (Áth na long[xxvi] – ford of the ships), on the County Down coast. 

Another, which raises my hopes, incorporates the same maritime noun - Baile an Longfoirt, anglicised as Ballylumford.  It occupies a strategic site on Islandmagee peninsula in County Antrim.  Translated from Irish, its English meaning is[xxvii] town or townland of the fortress, stronghold, or camp. Fortuitously this fits with the location’s characteristics.  The prefix Long (ship), mysteriously, isn’t specified definitionally. 

Placenameni’s descriptive of Ballylumford makes conjectural observations about temporary camps of 9^th century Viking raiders, the position of the peninsula exposed to attacks by Danes and Scots – alas with nothing evidential to confirm possibilities, like mummified ships.[xxviii] 

When Covid-19 invaded DudhGall-like last March, the course I was attending on Ulster Archaeology terminated after 8 enthralling classes.  We had learned about a Viking burial site at Larne and that the summer sailors undertook more extensive settlement in Ireland’s south-east.  

Ó’Mainnín[xxix] says that the Vikings coined roughly 60 place-names in Ireland, including Ueða-Fjörðr (Waterford), Ueigs-Fjörðr (Wexford), and Uikingrló (Wicklow).[xxx] Smyth[xxxi] adds the Old Norse Hlýmrek (Limerick) on the west coast arguing that Nordic influence on Ireland’s place-names was more widespread than is currently held.

Another academic[xxxii] observes that “only two place-names in Northern Ireland are derived from Old Norse: Larne or Ulfreks Fjörðr – fjord of Ulfrek - and Strangford.”    Apparently

“in the 10^th and 11^th centuries Ulfreksfjordr was the centre of Viking activity.  This is seen from Viking burial sites and artefacts found in this area.....  Snorri Sturluson[xxxiii] (1178-1241 Norwegian poet, historian and politician in the Althing) mentions Ulfreksfjordr in his Heimskringla as the place where Connor the King of Ireland defeated the Orkney Vikings under the leadership of Einar in battle in 1018.”

A Norwegian relation[xxxiv] advises that Ulfrek is not a name (Ulrik is), adding that frekk means cheeky.  Larne comes from the Irish word Latharna, meaning descendants of Lathar who[xxxv] was one of 25 children of the pre-Christian king Úgaine Mór.  Neither Latharna nor Larne nor Ugaine bear any apparent etymological similarity to the Old Norse Ulfreksfjordr.

Drawing from Smyth’s case that “Scandinavian rural settlement in Ireland was more extensive than is currently assumed,[xxxvi]” this essay has searched Ulster for additional candidates.  Norse-derived Ulster place-names, nevertheless, still seem to share a rarity value similar to that of our Norse surnames.  Larne stretches that characteristic to the extreme by concealing Ulfreksfjordr for no known reason.  Lost? 

Larne, however,[xxxvii] is “a relatively recent name.”  How recent is, tantalisingly, left undefined.  In the words of the bishop's servant's son, it is “shrouded in an impenetrable fog of unintelligibility[xxxviii]” - perhaps lost in translation.  

I’m tempted to offer Sumarlidafjorðr as an alternative.

 

©Michael McSorley 2021

 

Bibliography

---

[i] Dónall MacGiolla Easpaig “Ireland’s Heritage of Geographical Names” Vienna 2009

[ii] The Northern Ireland Place-names Project based at Queens University Belfast www.placenamesni.org

[iii] The Placenames Branch Dept of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht  www.logainm.ie

[iv] Donegal https://www.logainm.ie/en/100013

[v] Tyr Connell https://www.logainm.ie/en/1166821?s=T%c3%adr+Chonaill

[vi] Country/tír https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm#f

[vii] Foreigner https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm#f

[viii] Ballyloughlin, Maghera Co Down. Neither http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=17399 nor https://www.logainm.ie/en/66586 endorse a Danish Viking link.

[ix] “The name Somhairle and its clan” H Palsson, from “So Many People, Longages & Tonges,” Edinburgh 1981.

[x] http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/somerled.html

[xi] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names

[xii] Robert Bell “The Book of Ulster Surnames.” p 182. 1988

[xiii] Collins English Dictionary millennium edition p 627

[xiv] Ballyalloly http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=6868

[xv] ON dictionary search reveals options: e.g. Rejk=bay, reykr=smoke, rekkr=warrior

[xvi] The Annals of Ulster https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100001A/text365.html

[xvii] Rathlin Island http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=15371

[xviii] Kerling ON= hag/old woman https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_N2E.shtm#s

[xix] Dublin https://www.logainm.ie/Eolas/Data/Brainse/baile-atha-cliath-dublin.pdf

[xx] Wood Quay Dublin https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/wood-quay-revealing-the-heart-of-viking-dublin.htm

[xxi] Jonathon Bardon “Place names in the North of Ireland” p 2 NICLR.

[xxii] Patrick McKay “A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names 1999 p 144 ISI QUB.

[xxiii] Stang http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=14666

[xxiv] Stang https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_N2E.shtm#s

[xxv] Stadium https://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/stadium

[xxvi]Annalong https://www.logainm.ie/en/130004?s=Annalong

[xxvii] Ballylumford  http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=16796

[xxviii]Viking Ships  http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/norse_ships.htm

[xxix]Mícheál Ó’Mainnín 2017 “Annexing Irish Names to the English Tongue: language contact and the Anglicisation of Irish place-names” Paul Walsh Memorial Lecture Maynooth University

[xxx] Ibid Ó’Mainnín 2017: p6 - meanings - Ueða-Fjörðr (ram or windy fjord), Ueigs-Fjörðr (fjord of the water-logged island or piece of land), Uikingrló (meadow of the Vikings).

[xxxi] Limerick William J Smyth History Ireland Mar/Apr 2020 “The Scandinavian Impact, A Geographical Exploration.” https://www.jstor.org/stable/26915175?seq=1

[xxxii] Sophie Vanherpen May 2016 ”Traces of Vikings in Northern Ireland”  https://vanherpens.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/traces-of-vikings-in-northern-ireland/?fbclid=IwAR1a42ptQugDscY-2DgMZh8ST5_7JV0CDNW4_Zy9O2RzhT0RTaQo6tIIQm4

[xxxiii] Sturluson https://www.britannica.com/biography/Snorri-Sturluson

[xxxiv] Merete Olsen from Åsgårdsstrand on west coast of Oslofjord, wife of my nephew Greg Barnes

[xxxv] Larne http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=16730

[xxxvi] William J Smyth History Ireland ibid 2020 “The Scandinavian Impact, A Geographical Exploration.”

[xxxvii] Ibid. http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=16730

[xxxviii]Ibid Dónall MacGiolla Easpaig “Ireland’s Heritage of Geographical Names” 2009