Note 20 — Chapter III

Pronounced "Sive," but as Méadhbh is curiously pronounced like "Mow" in Connacht, so is Sadhbh pronounced "sow," rhyming to "cow." I heard a Galway woman in America, the mother of Miss Conway, of the Boston Pilot quote these lines, which she said she had often heard in her youth—

"Sow, Mow [i.e., Sive and Mève], Sorcha, Síghle, Anmneacha cat agus madah na tíre."

I.e., "Sive, Mève, Sorcha and Sheela are the names of all the cats and dogs in the country," and hence by implication unsuited for human beings. This was part of the process of Anglicisation.