In the Cork Historical and Archæological Journal (March, 1897) there are some legends concerning St. Gobnata, of Ballyvourney, near Macroom, and of her beachaire, or "bee-hive," which is stated to have been changed into a brass helmet, and also into a bell.  Gobnata, recte Gobnait, is a feminine form of Goban, and the name Gobnata is contracted from Gobanait.  Dr. Whitley Stokes, in Calendar of Oengus, p. cclxx., says that Gobnait, or Gobnat, means "little mouth," but this explanation is very doubtful.  Miss M. T. Kelly, in Cork Journal, says that Gobnata is called Abigail by the English, and was known in Ireland as Gobnait, Gobnit, Gobinet, and Gobnata, while at the present day the poor people, especially in County Limerick, call her Deborah and Judith, which, by their usual abbreviations of Debby and Judy, are common among the peasantry. In the Indulgences granted in 1601 for the feast day of this saint by Pope Clement VIII. (a copy of which is included in the Carew Papers) this pontiff mentions her as St. Gobeneta.  Miss Kelly says that the date of St. Gobnata's birth is uncertain, but it is supposed that she was born either at the end of the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century.  Consequently, according to the Life of St. Gobnata, there were hive-bees at Ballyvourney in the sixth century.  The people of South Limerick call Gobnata by the name of Deborah, and it is curious that this name Deborah is the ordinary Hebrew word for bee. (Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, White, 1905)