Some Puzzles and Cautions in Interpreting Irish Local Names (Origin of the name Sneem)

The name of the village of Sneem, in Co. Kerry, to the west of Kenmare, is a perfectly plain Gaelic word, and universally understood in the neighbourhood—Snaidhm [snime], a knot. The intelligent old people of the place say that the place got its name from a roundish grass-covered rock, rising over a beautiful cascade in the river just below the bridge, where the fresh water and the salt water meet. When the tide is in, this rock presents the appearance of a snaidhm or knot over the stream. This is not unlikely.

But there is another name formed from the same word—just one other in all Ireland, so far as I am aware—the origin of which it is not so easy to discover. This is Snimnagorta, near the village of Ballymore in Westmeath, which is a real puzzle, though its meaning is plain enough, gort or gorta, hunger or famine: Snimnagorta, the "knot of hunger." So also, there are places called "Frossa," which is an anglicized form of the Irish Frasa, "showers." But why are these places called in Irish "Showers"? Perhaps the name of the "Caha Mountains" (i.e. "showery mountains)", between Kenmare and Bantry, may give some help (Names of Places, II. 153). "Frosses" in Antrim is the same name, only with the English plural termination. I will leave these names and others like them to exercise the judgment of the readers.