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Rae- na- Scriné

Reanascreena /Reenascreena

Why is Rae- na- Scriné known as Reanascreena and what is Rae- na- Scriné? 

To answer this and other questions we first need to have a brief interlope with history.

Linguistically speaking. The name Reanascreena/Reenascreena has undergone a minor transition: from Irish (Gaelic) into the newer Hiberno- English -- Hiberno- English being the classification of English we speak on this Island of Ireland. (Hibernia – “Latin for Ireland”, from the time when Latin was the common written language of the Roman Empire.)

Ireland has had a long oral tradition; Irish Gaelic, as we know it: was not a written language until after the introduction of Christianity. Spoken Irish Gaelic existed as an unwritten language stretching back for thousands of years. Therefore it can be concluded that place names were spoken names. When the language finally became written, in Irish Gaelic - it described the meaning of the spoken word. We’re forever indebted to the Monastic class for this undertaking.

During Colonial times, spoken Irish Gaelic went into decline as Hiberno-English became the predominant spoken language. Due to this transition place names often lost their true spelling and meaning. One also has to consider that modern Irish Gaelic is different from ancient Irish Gaelic.

Here are some examples of this transition:

• Cnoc-Knock (hill)
• Gaoth-geehy (wind)
• Mor- more (big/large)

... and so on.

Our landscape contains thousands of such examples. Fortunately it also contains many unaltered, accurate, descriptive town land names. 

In light of the aforementioned we can now look both linguistically and anthropologically towards Reanascreena anew.

Rea-na-screena / Rae- na- Scriné

Rae (row) - Na (the) - scrín (shrine)

Row the Shrine.

 Retranslating the Irish Gaelic back into English, we discover that, Rae- na- scrín reads more like The Row of the Shrine, or in Irish Gaelic “The Shrine row”. Rae- na- Scrin takes it name from the Stone Circle south of the Village crossroads. This Stone Circle has an elevation of 170 meters, on the western side of the Cashel River. Around the stone circle there is a ‘henge’ or moat-like feature. 

In terms of our heritage, be it linguistic or monumental this site is unique. Rae- na- Scrin survives in conjunction with other place names -- occasionally appearing slightly altered, but never far from being understood.