The key to Mayo’s Keeloges

THE placename Keeloges, or sometimes Keelogues, is common to many counties, and it is usually translated as “(the place of) Narrow Ridges or Stripes”. ‘The place of the osiers’ or ‘osier-beds’ are given as explanations for ‘An Caológ’ and ‘Na Caológa’ in Limerick by Art Ó Maolfabhail, one time member of the Placenames Commission.
Dictionaries differ on the spelling of the original Irish, word but it is generally given as ‘Na Caológa’. In Ó’Dónaill’s dictionary it is defined as ‘osier-bed; riverside field, meadow; small channel; small branch of river’. The ‘small’ definition is plausible as ‘caol’ means ‘narrow,’ from which we get Keel as a placename. Also, Killary, in Irish ‘Caoláire’, translates to ‘firth’ or ‘fjord’!

Mayo’s Kelloges
IN Mayo, the townland name appears a total of six times. Two of these townlands – Keeloges New (Na Caológa) and Keeloges Old (Ráth Donnáin), in Kildacoomoge Civil Parish, Barony of Carra – are collectively known as the (Catholic) Parish of Keelogues, the subject of a book by Mary O’Brien, reprinted last year. Another two, Keeloges Upper (Na Caológa Uachtaracha) and Keeloges Lower (Na Caológa Íochtaracha), are in Lacken Civil Parish, in the Barony of Tirawley.
The final two – Keeloges, Burrishoole Civil Parish, and Keeloges, Islandeady Civil Parish, both in the Barony of Burrishoole – are the two closest to home, so I decided to check these out.
When I visited Keeloges, Islandeady, and parked outside Padraig Joyce’s farm buildings, my explorations took me up the road to Kilbree Church, in the townland of Kilbree Upper (see Kilbride article, ‘St Brigid appears around the county’, published March 28 and available on mayonews.ie). In the townland near Newport, the narrow channel between Keeloges and the adjacent townland of Knockboy, An Cnoc Buí (‘Yellow Hill’), near Ardagh (‘High Field’), may have inspired the name. I went there recently and met local farmer Aidan Cusack. He agreed that the narrow, now fertile ‘stripes’ of land stretching down to the sea could make sense of the meaning. He also pointed out the acres of ancient woodland across the hill in Keeloges.
I then contacted his neighbour, Tommy Hughes of Derradda (with two ‘d’s), and Tommy took me on a tour of Keeloges and the neighbouring townland of Knockalegan, Cnoc an Liagáin (‘Hill of the Standing Stone’)
We first went up to the top of the eponymous hill, Knockalegan. It certainly lives up to its name, with the two large standing stones still intact, one straight and the other angled slightly. They are believed to have been sited there as markers for ships in Burrishoole Bay.
John O’Donovan in the Ordnance Survey namebooks uses the plural version of Keeloge and this is the generally accepted form, recommended by the modern-day scholars and the oral testimonies of local inhabitants.
Another possibility is the Irish word ‘coilleog’, meaning a ‘grove, little wood’ (from Ó Dónaill’s dictionary). This is an equally plausible translation, given the presence of a sizeable wood of ‘native’ Irish trees, many of them willow, occupying a third of the southern half of Keeloges, stretching down to the coast.
Tommy assured me these trees would pre-date the 1840s, as the wood is clearly indicated on the Griffith’s Valuation OSi six-inch map from that time. The ‘old’ road that ran through Knockalegan, Keeloges and Knockglass is also visible.

Willow
OF the 400 species of willow (species Salix) that grow worldwide, several grow in Ireland. It can be tricky to tell which are native and which were introduced. Willows thrive in damp and poor soil and are an important part of Ireland’s biodiversity. They are also an important food source for bees and moths.
Salix caprea (the pussy or goat willow, or sailchearnach) is a very common native tree in Ireland, while Salix viminalis (the osier willow, or saileánach) has been introduced to Ireland from abroad.
Willows with very slender leaves are sometimes called ‘osiers’ and those with very broad leaves are sometimes called ‘sallows’. The Chambers dictionary defines an osier as any willow whose twigs are used in basket-making. ‘Sallow’ also means ‘yellow’ too.
The Ancient Greeks made poultices and teas containing willow to treat pain, and Hippocrates wrote about its medicinal properties in the 5th century BC. The active medicinal chemical in willow is salicin, concentrated in the bark. If taken internally it is metabolized into salicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin.
Here in Ireland, Irish harps were traditionally made of willow, and willow is now being grown in Ireland as a biofuel/biomass.
Willow is often called ‘sally’ in Ireland, from the Irish ‘saileach’, itself derived from the Latin ‘salix’. Places named after willow in Ireland include Sallynoggin, Clonsilla and Parknasilla. Perhaps best avoided if you have bad memories of the sting of a sally rod!