Balloolymore

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Baile Ailigh Mór 'large townland of (the) stony place'

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Balloolymore was church land, one of the townlands of Knockgorm, the mensal lands of the bishop of Dromore. From the earliest reference in 1609 into the 19th century the second element was regularly spelt -illie etc. A form in -uley appears first in Garvaghy graveyard and in the Cess book, while the 1830 Freehold Registry has both Balloolymore and Ballylymore (OSNB 12). The inhabitants by this stage generally pronounced the name as [-lu-ley] and O'Donovan adopted the spelling Balloolymore. He reported that, 'The rector says that Balleely is the correct name but the rector knows nothing about it' (OSNB 12, 42). Dean Mooney commented on the pronunciation of Balloolymore and Ballooly townlands: The rector was right - naturally enough. The form in -ooly is a (late) 18th-century development from misreading of manuscript ee in 17th-century documents where ee looks like oo. The -oo- form began in Balloolymore, a protestant and planted townland, i.e. among people ignorant of current and traditional pronunciation. The traditional pronunciation still survives in (so-called) Ballooly (it remained in Irish hands - Magennis): it is Ballela... Ballooly has no standing in history (Mooney MS 93). Despite Mooney's defence of tradition, the historical forms collected so far indicate that Mr Magennis and the McMain family of Ballooly were the first to use the later spelling. However it is only in Balloolymore that the name is generally pronounced Ballooly. The surname (Mac)Gilhooly put forward by O'Donovan (OSNB 1834) is common in Co. Leitrim (Woulfe 1923, 375,380). However this suggestion, like Joyce's Baile Ubhlaighe 'town of the apples' (1913) can be discounted, since the oo is not original, and the element following Baile was earlier spelled with either e or i. The second element of Balloolymore is most likely aileach 'stony place' as in Ballooly. Since the earlier spellings of this element are not the same for the two names, with Balloolymore being consistently spelt -illy rather than -ely, it is possible that Balloolymore contains a different word and was originally Baile Aoiligh 'townland of manure', although this would be most likely anglicized Balleely.