Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Creggaree in Galway ; the king's rock. See Ree [reproduced below].
Righ [ree], written ri in old Irish, is the usual Irish word for a king, cognate with the Latin rex, and with Gothic reiks. No general statement can be made as to why places received names containing this word; for there are many different explanations in different places. We may conclude that some places so named were in former times the residence of petty kings; that some were in the king's immediate possession; while others commemorate an event or transaction in connection with a king. Certain places were called "King's Land" in English, or were known by some corresponding name in Irish, because they were held by tenants directly from the crown. There is a place near Dingle in Kerry called Monaree, Moin-a'-righ, the bog of the king; which the people say was so called from the fact that in the beginning of the last century, turf was cut in this townland, which was then a bog, for the use of the barrack of Dingle, in which there was a detachment of soldiers. This term generally takes the form of ree in anglicised names; but as the genitive of fraech, heath, assumes in some cases the very same form; the two are occasionally liable to be confounded. Thus it is impossible to tell by an inspection of the modern form whether Dunaree is anglicised from Dún-a'-righ, the fort of the king, or from Dún-a'-fhraeigh, the fort of the heath; and as a fact, the name is differently interpreted in different places. In Dunaree in the parish of Donaghmoyne in Monaghan, the last syllable means heath. But Dunaree in Cavan is a different name; it means the fort of the king; and the town of Kingscourt which it includes, retains the name in an English dress. The old fort of Dunaree still exists, a little to the west of the town. The form ree is also exhibited in Tooraree in Limerick and Mayo, the king's toor or bleach-field. The Four Masters record the legend that in the second year of the reign of Heremon, the nine rivers named Righ (King's river) burst forth in Leinster. There are, however, only four rivers in that province now known by the name, one of which is the Rye Water, which flows into the Liffey at Leixlip, and which retains the old name almost unchanged.