Editing Mallow, County Cork (section)

==Name==
The earliest form of the name is ''Magh nAla'', meaning "plain of the stone".<ref name="logainm">{{cite web |title=Mala / Mallow |url=http://www.logainm.ie/1414050.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193334/http://www.logainm.ie/1414050.aspx |archive-date=29 October 2013 |access-date=10 March 2019 |website=logainm.ie |publisher=Placenames Database of Ireland}}</ref> In the [[anglicisation]] "Mallow", ''-ow'' originally represented a [[Vowel reduction|reduc]]ed [[schwa]] sound ({{IPAc-en|'|m|æ|l|ə}}), which is now however pronounced as a full vowel {{IPAc-en|oʊ}}.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gazetteer of Ireland / Gasaitéar na hÉireann |year=1989 |publisher=[[Government of Ireland]] |isbn=0-7076-0076-6}}</ref> In 1975, ''Mala''—a shortening of ''Magh nAla''—was among the first Irish placenames adopted by [[statutory instrument|statute]],<ref>{{cite web |title=I.R. Uimh. 133/1975 – An tOrdú Logainmneacha (Foirmeacha Gaeilge) (Uimh. 1) (Postbhailte) 1975. |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1975/ga/si/0133.html |language=Irish |date=22 July 1975 |access-date=27 January 2008 |publisher=[[Government of Ireland]] |quote=Mallow (33) Mala ([[Irish declension#Genitive|g.]] Mhala) |archive-date=29 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229235141/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1975/ga/si/0133.html |url-status=live }}</ref> on the advice of the Placenames branch of the [[Ordnance Survey of Ireland]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Placenames Orders |url=http://www.pobail.ie/en/IrishLanguage/ThePlacenamesBranch/PlacenamesOrders/ |access-date=27 January 2008 |publisher=[[Department of Children, Disability and Equality|Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080402220255/http://www.pobail.ie/en/IrishLanguage/ThePlacenamesBranch/PlacenamesOrders/ |archive-date=2 April 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Placenames Commission |url=http://www.logainm.ie/English/history.asp |access-date=27 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070924124141/http://www.logainm.ie/English/history.asp |archive-date=24 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the ''[[Annals of the Four Masters]]'', compiled in the 1630s, ''Magh nAla'' is misrepresented as ''Magh Eala'', the [[County Donegal]]-based authors being insufficiently familiar with [[County Cork]] places.<ref name="ucc-prof">{{cite news |title=Marshmallows |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |first=Roibeárd |last=Ó hÚrdail |date=1 March 1996 |page=15 }}</ref> [[Patrick Weston Joyce|P.W. Joyce]] in 1869 surmised that in ''Magh Eala'' {{sic}}, ''Ealla'' referred to the river Blackwater, and connected the name to the nearby [[baronies of Ireland|barony]] of [[Duhallow]].<ref name="ucc-prof"/> Professor [[T. F. O'Rahilly]] in 1938 interpreted ''Magh Eala'' as "plain of the swans".<ref name="ucc-prof"/> This [[false etymology]] remains widely cited and has caused resentment by some of the official ''Mala'' as being a gratuitous simplification of ''Magh Eala''.<ref name="ucc-prof"/> However, the name ''Mala'' has been used in Irish for more than 300 years.<ref name="logainm" />