In the late 1960s, major changes were made to the method by which our mainly rural and residential addresses were identified. The reason given was that our postal and delivery services were being modernised and computerised. The words "speed" and "efficiency" were used. Nobody could quarrel with those sentiments. However, with speed and efficiency there usually come casualties. In this case the casualty was our beautiful and historic townland names.

In many cases names, such as these in my constituency of Strangford, were dropped: Ballygraffan, Tullytramon, Ballyfinragh and Tullynacrew. I am certain that there were many more. I leave it to other Members to pronounce the names of townlands that were dropped from use in their own areas. I am aware that, at the time of the change, strong representations were made against the loss of our townland names — unfortunately, with little success.

The omission of these names must deprive many of the present generation and future generations of the knowledge of the rich history of many of these areas. Townland names often referred to an easily identifiable feature of the surrounding landscape; for example, "carraig" means "rock", "tullagh" means "hill" and "bally" means "settlement of". In my own place of origin, Ballycranbeg is "the townland of the small tree", and the name of the neighbouring townland, Ballycranmore, means "big tree". Ballycranmore survived the modernisation of the postal service; Ballycranbeg fell by the wayside.

However, I am happy to say that, with the help of our local council, we resurrected the name of Ballycranbeg around the hamlet there. Unfortunately, that cannot be done for every townland. As someone who cherishes our heritage — be it built, Christian or cultural— I consider the restoration and revival, as far as possible, of our townland names to be very important to our local history. We may have partially lost that history in the 1960s, but we now have an opportunity to rectify that. I consider the Assembly to be a means by which to bring that restoration about.

Earlier I used the words "speed" and "efficiency". We have all benefited from speed and efficiency, because we receive letters and packages more quickly. We also benefit from good use of the postcode system. Perhaps the Royal Mail could consider matching each townland name with a postcode. Indeed, last week the Royal Mail assured me that it has no objection to the inclusion of townland names in postal addresses and confirmed that that has always been its policy. Therefore, it is up to us to encourage the use of townland names in our addresses. The Royal Mail stresses the need for clear addressing, with particular emphasis on the postcode.

A lot of correspondence is sent out from Government Departments on a daily basis, perhaps even on a twice- daily basis. If the Departments included townland names in their addresses, the community would, in time, see the positive results of the initiative. The relevant information is easily accessible to Government Departments because townland names are clearly marked on Ordnance Survey maps. The electoral register indicates the townlands in which the various rural roads and communities are located.

I am also aware that local historical societies, of which there are many in Northern Ireland, including the Federation for Ulster Local Studies, the Ulster Place- Name Society and many other organisations, are very supportive of the motion. Concern has been expressed that the ‘Shaping our Future’ document, of which we are all aware, paid scant notice to the need to reintroduce our townland names. Perhaps even at this late stage, the authors of ‘Shaping our Future’ could be encouraged to use the townland names across Northern Ireland. If the Assembly and Government Departments can take the lead in restoring those names, I have no doubt that private businesses and individuals would soon follow. I ask Members to support the motion, and I appeal to our rural residents to use, and to encourage others to use, these names. If that happened, a little bit of our heritage would be restored and saved.

The House will be aware that the debate is limited to one hour. Since the start of the debate, several Members have requested a chance to speak, so I must restrict Members to five minutes each.

I commend the Members for bringing forward this motion, because the issue of townland names has always been dear to my heart. Townland names have been passed down from early days and are a wonderful store of information that is in danger of being totally lost. That is mainly due to the renaming of our roads willy-nilly by some desk-bound people, without thought or consideration for local opinions.

I have always welcomed the stance taken by Fermanagh District Council, and I wish that other councils in Northern Ireland would follow by retaining townland names. In the Tyrone area, where I live, we have a proliferation of the same names applied to roads leading to and from the village of Moy.

All of those roads are called Moy Road. There is a Moy Road in Portadown; a Moy Road in Moy; a Moy Road in Armagh; and a Moy Road in Dungannon. You can imagine the confusion that that leads to. The new designation was supposed to help, but instead it has led to great confusion, so most people began to use the townland names again.

I live on one of those Moy Roads and I find my mail going hither and thither along another Moy Road. I, in turn, was receiving mail intended for those who lived at the same house number on another Moy Road. I solved my problem by adding the townland name to my address. Thankfully, since then, there have been no more problems. I encourage people who are experiencing similar problems to start using the townland names again.

I will go back into the mists of time — not quite as far as the origin of townlands — to when I was a teacher. When my pupils and I undertook projects on the school’s area, I always encouraged the children to start their information searches by using the townland name. Much to my amusement, we always found that the townland name would have the same description as the original town. I remember having great amusement when I was teaching in a school called Annaghmore Primary School. When the children were starting their project I asked which of them had a big, mossy, springy field at the back of their house that they could jump up and down on. The pupils would say "Please Miss, have you been to our house?" I told them that I knew that information from the townland name, Annaghmore — "the big bog".

I encourage all of our Departments, the councils and, in particular, the public, to use townland names. Townland names must be retained or we will lose much of our wonderful and picturesque heritage. I welcome the motion and have great pleasure in supporting it.

I commend Mr McCarthy and Mr Ford for putting the motion before the House.

There are about 10,000 townlands in Northern Ireland and they are a unique expression of our heritage — a heritage that is at our fingertips. That sense of identity and heritage has been lost due to things such as numbering vague roads that can be up to 15 miles long. Some townland names date back to the eighth century; they help us to recognise the topography and history of an area. It is sad that we have allowed the use of townland names to disappear from our areas — due to the great pressure put on councils by the Post Office for convenience of delivery.

Local district councils have the authority to determine the postal addresses in their areas — not the Assembly or the Government. Councils have failed to use that authority, with the notable and honourable exception of Fermanagh District Council, which resisted re-designation at the time.

I remember proposing a motion in my district asking that the townland names be retained with the number and road system suggested by the Post Office. The resolution was passed unanimously. However, that was the last we heard of it — some 12 years ago — and it seems that the council has not had time to get round to dealing with the issue again. Therefore although there was a willingness to do something about it, that willingness was not translated into action.

The re-designation that was almost imposed on us by the Post Office did not take place in England, Scotland or Wales, where there is a much greater dispersal of houses and towns. Fair play to the Post Office: it got away with it — but it was our fault that it did. We should try to restore the use of townland names as soon as possible because of the advent of the Assembly and the enormous amount of heritage the names represent. The entire legal documentation system is based on townlands and it is a very convenient way of identifying legal title as well as an area’s history and heritage.

For practical purposes, that might suit the Post Office, but it will suit only the Post Office. On several occasions in my own area I have met ambulance drivers in distress, who asked me where such-and-such a house was on a certain road. I then had to ask them which end of the road they meant, because it is either 10 miles to the left or 10 miles to the right. If the driver does not know the townland, the house cannot be identified. The same applies to other emergency services. Townlands identify a very narrow locality. It is particularly helpful for emergency services to be able to go to a townland.

There is no good reason why we cannot have a combination that suits both postal delivery and lineal house numbering on long stretches of road. In my constituency, near where I live, a road runs from Strangford to Ardglass, a distance of some 10 miles. There are numerous townlands on the road, and unless one knows the sequence of house numbers, one cannot give people directions. If one starts from Downpatrick, one goes in one direction to Strangford and another to Ardglass, two entirely different directions. Unless one knows the townland, one cannot give people directions. That is one practical reason why townlands should be restored.

It should be borne in mind that it is already in our provenance to change that situation. We do not need legislation or statutory instruments because local councils can decide on correct postal addresses. I encourage the other 25 local councils to readopt the system that will protect our identity, our identity and our heritage. I pledge my full support for any public campaign that the Member initiates after approval by all parties in the House.

"There’s Cavanamara and dark Derrymeen,
There’s Carrickatane and Munderrydoe,
With Strawletterdallan and Cavankilgreen
All dancing a jig with Cregganconroe."

There are three essential reasons why townlands should be retained. First, there is a legal reason. Most of us live in or own property that is identified by its county, its barony and its townland. Legally, we should retain a townland system.

Secondly, there is an administrative reason. In the second and third centuries, when Christian sects from near the Sudan or southern Egypt started to trade along the Atlantic coastline, they introduced into Ushnagh Hill in Westmeath the idea of identifying areas and putting in boundaries. It is an ancient system of identifying a landmass by sheughs, burns, mountain tops or whatever. That was important when St Patrick and later saints started to build an ecclesiastical system of boundaries based on the existing townlands.

That idea has been developed in a modern administration. None of us can lift an electoral register without seeing areas whose building blocks are townlands. If one looks at a map of district electoral divisions and wards — even properties and electoral areas in the conurbations — they are often called by their old townland names.

It was a rush of blood by the Post Office 30 or 40 years ago that hailed the modern words "efficiency" and "rationalisation". We must restore the integrity that supports the ecclesiastical boundaries and the legal system: there is no alternative when it comes to supporting the administrative electoral system. In other words, we must have measures that can keep, or adjust, the boundaries as time goes on. The building blocks for those measures are the townlands; therefore, we have every right to retain them.

Since Fermanagh resisted putting up road names — and Omagh Council still resists — may I suggest that for those of us who are forced to do so, the townland name should be placed above the road name. Funding should be made available for some good artistic stone work, so that passers-by can read the name of one townland on one side of a stone and another townland on the other.

We must re-identify the areas. In the last 30 years we have lost a generation of people who knew where the countryside boundaries were.

I appeal to Government Departments — who can readily change this — and to the other agencies that seem resistant to the introduction of townland names. These agencies are usually the quangos, the milk marketing boards and other bodies, which when asked to use the townland names will resist by saying, "If the man wants his cheque, the official name is such-and-such". I want to end with the lines of the poem by W F Marshall, and I will cut them short by simply saying that everyone has their own Fernaghandrum and Sanaghanroe. I support the motion.

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Ba mhaith liom labhairt i bhfách leis an rún agus cuirim fáilte roimhe. Ba chóir don Tionól brú a chur ar gach Roinn Rialtais úsáid a bhaint as logainmneacha agus iad a chur chun cinn. Sílim go bhfuil sé oiriúnach ar fad bheith ag caint i nGaeilge ar an ábhar seo, mar tagann an chuid is mó de na logainmneacha ón teanga Ghaeilge í féin. Fiú sna leaganacha Béarla tá rian na Gaeilge le cluinstin. Leoga, cheap mé gur i nGaeilge a bhí an Teachta deireannach ag labhairt nuair a luaigh sé sraith de logainmneacha as Gaeilge. Mar a dúirt mé, tagann logainmneacha ar fud na tíre ón teanga Ghaeilge. Baineann logainmneacha le bunadh áite agus le stair áite agus le tírdhreach áite.

I welcome the motion. The use of Irish is particularly appropriate when speaking on the motion because the townland names come from the Irish language, although they have been somewhat anglicised. For a while I thought the last Member was speaking in Irish when he listed a series of townland names.

The townland name relates to the people of a place, particularly those in rural communities because they identify themselves by their townland — and they can be very clannish. If one tells them that they are from Cullaville, they will say that they are from Clonalig, because Clonalig is their townland. If one tells them that they are from Camlough, they will say that they are from Carrickcroppan.

Townland names also describe the topography. A name can be a description of the local geographical feature of an area, be it the "dogs’ rock", the "goats’ rock", the "black rock" or the "Mass Rock". It has a sense of community identity.

We live in an age of numbers. Often when one telephones someone to carry out a transaction, one must give one’s telephone number, national insurance number, tax reference number, credit card number and of course one’s postcode. Numbers are very impersonal; they have no character or sense of personal identity. It is somewhat dehumanising to reduce our titles and sense of identity to numbers.

There is a positive side to postcodes. I would not for one minute argue that BT35 7BZ is a more attractive way of describing the place where someone lives than Derramore. Nor is BT35 9BZ a more attractive way of describing Rathkeelan. In the South they do not use postcodes; they use the townland name, the nearest post office, the nearest town and the county. That can be ambiguous. We have an advantage in that the postcode system is in place. There is no reason for the townland name’s not being incorporated. It does not create any problem for the postal service if a postcode is already on the letter. The house number and the post code identify where each house is to the postal workers.

The Rate Collection Agency already uses the townland name for each rated property. If people look at their rates bills, which is perhaps not the nicest thing to do — and we will not refer to Assembly policies on that matter — they will see that townland names are used. The Rate Collection Agency has the database available to implement the system. I welcome the motion. Go raibh maith agat.

I recall that there was a similar motion in Newry and Mourne District Council. It was passed and has been acted upon, and road names now carry the townland names. There is still room for improvement. I welcome the opportunity that Mr McCarthy and Mr Ford have given us today to bring this to a higher level. I am particularly pleased to see the junior Minister, a country boy, Mr Denis Haughey, here to deal with this, rather than a confused Minister from Leamington Spa or Finchley trying to understand what we are talking about.

Last week in the Adjournment debate, I referred to traffic congestion in Drumcashlone and Carneyhaugh. About 700 or 800 people live in those areas, and very few of them knew that they lived there. They are mainly housing estates with fancy titles and numbers, such as Mr McNamee referred to. For that reason alone, I deliberately chose to use the townland names to try to get a message home to the residents, and in particular to the young.

About two months ago, Conor Bradford referred one morning on the radio to the beautiful townland names. He intended to get back to it sometime. He was referring to one of my areas — the townland of Clontifleece. If he ever gets back to that I can refer him to Clontifleece, Attical, Derryogue, Drumbonniff, Deehommed, Knochanarney — I could go on for hours on nice townland names. I hope that this debate will move things further, because a degree of lip service has been paid to this matter for maybe 20 or 25 years. Now that we have the Assembly I hope that the motion will get support and be acted upon.

Wi the maist fek o fowk, tounlann steidnames michtna be mukkil o a threip for oor ain Assemlie — whaniver we see yins daein murther an shuitin up an doun oor raws an loanins. But the loss o steidnames is mair pruif o the reddin oot o oor kintra fowkgates an heirskip.

To many people, townland names many not seem a serious issue to be debated in the Assembly when people have been murdered and gunned down in the street. However, the disappearance of townland names is further evidence of the eradication of our local culture and history. We are becoming ever more merged into the vague European identity that has been forced on us by the European Union to the detriment of our local heritage that is slowly ebbing away. The issue is more relevant today than ever. The identification of nationality is a symbol used to define it, whether that be flags, language, currency or local place names.

Although there is a willingness to give our flags away, our language is also under threat. It is important that we try to retain some of the history of our country. The Government would rather have the easy-to-use postal codes that pigeon-hole us into BT19 or BT23. It is an easy and clinical way of identifying who lives where. Our tradition of townland names reached back to the sixteenth century; and townland names were a person’s address, whether he knew how to write them or not. By the nineteenth century, townland names were part of how people defined themselves. They inscribed their townlands on their tombstones and entered their townland names under "nationality" when boarding ships to America and Australia.

The descendants of those people who left Ulster return to find the townlands that they have links to. They have letters and postcards with addresses on them, and some have maps and souvenirs, yet our own Government will not recognise the diverse and rich past of our country and its townland names.

The use of townland names is also a romantic link to the past and to the adventures of old. We do not say that Betsy Gray came from Newtownards BT23; rather we say that she came from Ballygrainey, close to the Six Road Ends. It is much more true to the storytelling culture of this land to use the townland names. The names of our townlands are truly ingenious and denote the long and varied history of different parts of this country.

My constituency has Viking, Scottish and English words mixed in with the Ulster names of the area. My constituency has over 2,700 townland names, and they are referred to daily. I have been in the houses of my older constituents who have regaled me with their local history. That is an important and untapped source of strength in these times of turmoil. The older people do not understand the removal of their past and the making of land into sub-lands of the nearest large town. For example, nearly every townland in Strangford has an address that ends in Newtownards BT23, et cetera.

We are trying to bring tourists here, and we are trying to promote our uniqueness to the rest of the UK. One of those differences has to be townland names like Ballyalloly or Ballywhatticock. The use of townland names is essential to what we all believe is quintessentially Northern Ireland.

Many poets use townland names in their poetry. Our most famous poet, Séamus Heaney, uses local names in his poetry, and I quote —

"So I say to myself Gweebarra
and its music hits off the place
like water hitting off granite.
I see the glittering sound."

There are many more across the Province who, like Séamus Heaney, use the townland names. What would we leave our aspiring poets if we took away the townland names. The availability of unusual poetic names would be gone, and it is hard to find words that rhyme with BT19, BT23 or BT6. I support the motion.

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