A kind reader points out…

by Barney

A kind reader has pointed out (in a tone of schadenfreude, it has to be said) the error of my ways - or at least of my spelling of the name of the place I’ve just visited in Northern Ireland.

He has quite correctly stated that County Down doesn’t have a ‘Hollywood’. The place name is actually ‘Holywood’ (which, I guess, is probably a more accurate rendering of the name’s derivation than the Californian version). It rather spoils the headline for my post, but never mind. Why let a fact get in the way of a good headline?

My only comfort is that I’m not the only non-Northern Ireland eejit to be so unobservant about the spelling of place names in the Province. I’ve checked out a few places on the web (not many) that believe Northern Ireland to have a place called ‘Hollywood’.

Thanks, Nick. Glad to know you’re reading!

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2 comments

1 Nicholas Sanders { 07.21.06 at 15:00 }: I think “schadenfreude” a bit strong.

Anyhow, here’s some info from Wikipedia :

Although it is pronounced the same as Hollywood, Holywood is not to be confused with those other places called Hollywood. Holywood was so named by the Normans after the woodland surrounding a monastery founded by St. Laiseran before 640…

The Irish name for Holywood is Ard Mhic Nasca, ‘the height of the son of Nasca’, but the ?holy wood? from which the town takes its modern name was beside the early Christian church on the site of the present ruins of the medieval Old Priory. It appears first in latinised form as Sanctus Boscus and the earliest written use of the anglicized version occurs on a document from the fourteenth century and is written ‘Haliwode’.

Nick - one who would rather find joy in being a friend!
2 Barney { 07.21.06 at 15:12 }: Many thanks for the further information, Nick. I apologize about the schadenfreude; that was definitely OTT.

The California spelling has such a grip on our minds - well, my mind, anyway - that I literally didn\’t see the correct spelling of the NI place. My failure in this respect what one book I read recently would describe as \’mindless\’ - my perception was driven by an unconscious assumption.

Hope you\’re well, Nick. Yours in friendship, Barney