Ballinagore: a village lost in translation

Dear EditorI have long been led to believe that Ballinagore is the anglicized version of the original Irish name Baile na nGabhar, which translates as the town of the goats.There is nothing wrong with this theory except that I have never heard of any evidence or folklore to suggest that Ballingore had any special relationship or connection with our bearded friend, the goat. Why would our forebearers have called the village, "the town of the goats" if it did not have any particular meaning for them? The answer is simple enough, they would not have done such a thing. Usually place names make sense and have a meaning but the goat connection seems to have been plucked from the air by someone who made some phonetic connection between the sound of Ballinagore and the Irish Baile na nGabhar. The connection is pretty tenuous and without some other corroboration from history or folklore must surely be a pretty dubious guess.If we look at the word Ballinagore the "Ballina" or "Ballyna" as it is sometimes spelled translates easily as "Baile na" meaning the "town of"… or the "home of"…. It is the "gore" bit that gives the trouble. The only other name in the area ending with "gore" is Loughnagore. Again the "Loughna" part of the name must surely come from the Irish Lough na meaning the lake of … So what is this the lake of? If we follow the given wisdom it should be Lough na nGabhar, meaning the lake of the goats. This makes even less sense than the town of the goats for Ballinagore.Might I be so bold as to suggest that Ballinagore and Loughnagore have nothing got to do with goats at all. In fact I suggest that Ballinagore when returned to its original Irish name should read Baile na ngCorr and likewise Loughnagore should in Irish read Lough na ngCorr. The word corr means crane or heron and these long legged, long necked birds are still to be seen around the area. Imagine how much more plentiful they would have been before the river was lowered and when the Brosna flowed out through all five eyes of the old bridge. I have been told that there used to be a small island in the river just past the bridge. I can well imagine our long legged friend crouching there with a watchful eye on the water waiting for lunch to swim by.Often as a child have I seen locals leaning over the bridge with necks craned in search of trout among the weeds as if unconsciously mimicking the bird from which I believe the village takes its name.What difference does it make you may well ask? Well to me it feels like reclaiming another little bit of our history, another little piece of our identity that got lost in translation.If your readers have an opinion on this matter it would be good to hear it.Yours Sincerely,Pat Deegan"Baile na ngCorr",