`Pulling the devil by the tail," though still occasionally the response to a query as to a person's well-being, is a pastime which appears to be losing popularity. Its inherent danger gave it a modicum of excitement, but the fall-off of religious practice, or the advent of the mobile phone, may account for its decline.
When naming places our ancestors were sparing in their references to this personage - under any of his various aliases. Deune Castle in the Co Kerry parish of Kilconly is Caislean an Deamhain, "the devil's castle" (P. W. Joyce's Irish Names of Places). North Kerry Landscape (an excellent 1990 FAS production) calls this Devil's Castle, saying that it is a seastack or rock some 31 metres high.
Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) says this columnar cliff is called "the Devil's Castle" and lists in this parish the extant ruins of the coastal castles of Lick and Beale. The latter is called Beau-lieu in the 1633 Pacata Hibernia, while in its boundary description of the Co Kerry barony of Iraghiconnor, The Civil Survey (1654-58) mentions "an old stump of a castle called Licke".
The 1814 Directory shows George Gunn esq, at Beal, Tarbert, Co Kerry (and at Tubrid, near Tralee). Also spelt Beale and betimes Biaille, this townland at the mouth of the Shannon is given in North Kerry Landscape as deriving from beal, a mouth. O'Hart's Irish Pedigrees lists Gunn among the chief Anglo-Norman and English families in Kerry. In 1669 the lands at Rattoo, Co Kerry, had been granted to William Gunn. Prior to building a residence there this family had lived in two other houses in the vicinity, one of which might have been Kilmeany in the neighbouring parish of Knockanure (Taylor & Skinner's 1778 Maps of the Roads of Ireland).
Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows Townsend G Gun on 453 acres at Rattoo, and Wilson Gun, also at Rattoo, on 11,819 acres, as well as three modest Gun holdings in Co Limerick. Mr. John Gun, who was an adventurer for lands in Ireland (1642-46), acted as agent for other adventurers in the Co Tipperary barony of Eliogarty.
Gunsborough in the Co Kerry parish of Galey is described in Lewis's 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland as a village of 38 houses and 181 inhabitants. It derived its name from its former proprietor Mr Gun, but had at that time been bought by P Mahony Esq who was building a new mansion and remodelling the village.
And then there were the Leinster Gunns. Gunstown names a townland in the Co Meath parish of the same name, and a townland in the Co Louth parish of Mosstown. The Irish for the latter is Baile Gun.
In 1551 John Gun was granted a house in the suburbs of Dublin; there was Gunn Esq at Turnpike north-east of Swords, Co Dublin in the 1778 Maps, and George Gunn Esq at Newtownmountkennedy in 1814 Directory. But it was in the print trade that the Dublin Gun(n)s shone. There were five of the name, variously spelt Gun, Gunn, and Gunne, between 1677 and 1781, booksellers and/or bookbinders and sometimes publishers, located in Dublin's Essex Street, Capel Street and Pembroke Court.
A memorandum of 1695 refers to "Gun, marshal of the Four Courts" ("a great rogue as it proved"), and a correspondence of 1701 notes "Gunn. .[FS. is such an uncertaine fluttering little fellow ..." Inchiquin Manuscripts). A 1931 entry in Signe Toksvig's evocative Irish Diaries 1926-1937, mentions "young Erksine Childers". "Boy was nice, though a paragon - he plans to have lucrative Paris job and be circulation manager Irish Press".
That same year young Ms Gunn-Cunningham came selling poppies. "Red hair, lisp, half-open mouth, freckles, long chin, yet somehow attractive. Asked her to tea next Monday.
"13 Nov. Ms Gunn-Cunningham turned down my tea-invite, rather rudely. So have we done."
Of Gunn the Penguin Dictionary of Surnames informs: "F(irstname) `war, battle' Old-Norman; but sometimes an abbreviation of the appalling female F Gunnhildr `battle battle' ON - as in our gun." Gunn(e) has been used as the English for Mac Giolla Dhuinn ("brown attendant"), and for Mac Giolla Gunna ("gun gillie"), names found in Cos Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan and Leitrim. Very likely some of the 63 Gunn and 12 Gunne telephone entries conceal Irish surnames. Outside of the Dublin 01 area the name is most numerous in the Cork 02 area.