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BALLYGOWAN - BAILE-GHABHANN. THE TOWN OF THE SMITHS - In ancient times when fighting was more or less continuous and war was looked upon as the noblest of professions, the craftsmen who made spears and swords were naturally held in high regard. Many races have had their smith-gods, and the Greek Hephaestus and the Roman Vulcan had their counterpart in the ancient Irish Goibniu, the Dedannan smith-god of the old romances. Numerous placenames remind us of the once powerful smiths; Ballygowan (Co. Down) is really Baileghann, "the town of the gow" or smith, while Athgoe in Dublin means "the simth's ford".