Thanks for this, I'm Irish and didn't know the translation of most of the 32 counties. This is the type of stuff that should be taught in school, so interesting 😊
Would like to see more for sure. I can see that Tolkien took a lot of inspiration from Irish language and I can see why,it is just mesmerising. It have affected me ex pat Croatian aswell. Love Ireland
I've been meaning to do a video on this. Tolkien especially took inspiration for Lord of the Rings from the Burren in Clare. There is a cave called Pol na Gollum (Hole of Gollum).
Same with the Witcher books, mainly takes from Welsh for Elvish languages but there are plenty of similarities to Irish in there too along with the Skellige isles
Also funny I always thought Louth was an Lú because it was the smallest county! But being named after Lugh makes more sense. (I think a teacher even pointed it out, but she may have just been pointing out the coincidence rather than attaching meaning)
Just to note with Carlow. Ceatharlach is considered to be derived from the old Irish place name Ceatharlach, meaning 'four lakes' or 'city on the lakes'
I've seen both for the county, I think it means the ‘place of cattle (or) herds’. Check out this article www.logainm.ie/en/100004 'The underlying word, spelled cethir in Old Irish, means a four-footed animal and is of the same origin as the numeral ceathair “four”. The suffix -lach conveys the meaning ‘place of’ rather than ‘lake’.
The artwork used to illustrate the counties is great. Midjourney yes? Did you generate them yourself? They'd be lovely to see larger somewhere! Excellent video also. Kerry man myself!
I really enjoyed this. I'm Scottish, my Dad's family were from Offaly (Edenderry) and I married a Donegal girl (Ballyshannon.) I love the country and it was nice to learn about all of the place names. I've been to them all except Co.Kerry. Lucky Kerry. Very interesting video.
kerry is called after ciar .who was a son of the king of ulster. settled in the northern part of the county around 100 ad.,that is from the river maine to the shannon.
Wicklow and Arklow are Norse. Not the Irish versions. Wicklow most likely Vykyngelo meaning meadow of the Vikings. Arklow is derived from the Norse personal name Arnkell and the Viking word for a marshy area 'lo'.
I've always found Irish place names fascinating, and wondered about the story behind them, such as "Aill na Cloigeann"; Skull Cliff, or "Gort na Folla"; the Field of Blood. But my favourite is a small townland near where I used to live in Connemara; Seannadh Pheistín; which means "The Congress of Little Worms". Where'd that come from?
My favorite place name might be the village of Kilnaboy in county Clare, or Cill Iníone Bhaoithe (Church of the Crazy Daughters). It might reference an early Christian Church (that's still there, including a carved image of Síle ní Gigh, with her vagina spread wide). After More papal influence the Gaelic church banned women from owning property except for if they were nuns, so Kilnaboy may be a reminder of one of the last women who built a church to hold fast to their independence.
An interesting fact is that the whole of county Derry and Inishowen was also in the kingdom of Tyrone in various stages of history. The original "Cenal Eoghain" was Inishowen and North county Derry. Another story I read was that Offaly is named after the kingdom of Uibh Fhaili but only a small region of the county was actually in that kingdom. The neighbouring counties were in that kingdom. Then there is Meath, it gets its name from the old kingdom but that was much larger than the county of Meath.
Technically there has never been a County Derry. It was created with the name County Londonderry. It was created at the same time the city of Derry was renamed to Londonderry. Most of the county was originally called County Coleraine and bits were taken from other counties to make County Londonderry (personally I don't have a strong view on the name to use)
Yeah the Uí Failghe tuath was only partly in Offaly over beside Edenderry. Most of it was in Kildare. By contrast, all of South Offaly, and most of the Shannon Shore of Offaly was all in the tuath of Éile Uí Cearbhaill (Ely O'Carroll). The very North of Tipperary was Éile Uí Fhógartaigh (Ely O'Fogarty), ruled by a distantly related group. Both named after their ruling families. Honestly I'd prefer if South and West Offaly seceeded and founded our own County called Éile/Ely. And if North Tipp wants to join us I'd be all for it. We in the South of the County have nothing in common with those in the North East. They're mostly Dubs that got priced out and still commute back into the City.
@gi7kmc there is no need to call it anything other than Derry. You're right about the history with County Coleraine, but there's no reason to add London to derry. Everyone from derry just says derry
Me too! I studied early Irish history in university but have forgotten most of it. It blew my mind the first time I saw all the small kingdoms of the 10th century.
Fantastic video. Very educational. It's so important we keep our history alive and videos like this help do just that. I've also learned new information about my home county of Carlow thanks to your video and helpful comment and link you provided to another viewer.
West man here, great video, god bless you for making this informative content!! Interesting Eire Abú!! I wanna ask you if I could sample this video for a house/hip-hop remix, with credit non0profit (I wish ahha we'd both make grade then ahahhah) cheers great craic Ní ceart go cuir le Chéile Slán abhaile x
Thanks for putting this up. I was chatting only yesterday about the etymology of Kilkenny and I thought Kill was from Coill or wood, I hadn’t realised it was a church. I’d love to know the pre-Christian names.
@@paulmcgrath6118 I'm not Irish, but I understand that it refers to a settlement having formed around or at the location of a monk's cell or habitation
Wow that was class any chance you could do all town's in Ireland, I know the meaning of the town I live in, listowel or lis tu hil meaning hillfort by a river and only two existing in the world one here in Ireland and another in Canada
I believe the foreigners referred to in donegal were the gallowglass from scotland not the vikings. I could be wrong but all the gallowglass were based in donegal.
Unsurprising how homophonic the Irish pronunciation sounds to our Welsh place names; very interesting especially when compared to our own Viking influence, like, Milfordhaven (Mile Fjord Haven), Haverfordwest (Haven Fjord in the West) & Fishguard (Fish enclosure). The Vikings didn`t settle much in the area controlled by the descendants of the Silurians, Swansea (Swain`s fortress) being at the very western edge of their traditional territory, so the names are mainly Welsh east of the Neath river except where they are industrial era new-builds and have been anglicised for commercial reasons - Bombay instead of Mumbai; Peking instead of Beijing etc.
For a "blowin" living in Galway, I loved this info. Can you make a video on Brehon Law ( what it stands for) and the families trees of that times having an impact on this. I do understand it connects with the Ubuntu way of life of the acien South African ways. I understand Brehon Law was looked up to as an example across the world and well respected in the old world of fine balance between the people and land. Thank you, I am looking forward to more of your work since I just found you ❤
This just came up for me. Not Irish but try to watch random but interesting things, very interesting. I did watch a video about a year ago about language, it covered a lot of Irish surnames which had a lot of Scandinavian roots. Glad I watched this.
As a Swede (so a tiny bit Viking) living now for 16 years in this beautiful country, I learned a lot I did not know from this. One thing I did know, is I chose the right county to live in. Among the green plains and yew trees. ^^
Cool video. Limerick isn’t right as “Bare Spot” though. It’s Léim an Each, the Horses Leap, as the place horses would cross the Shannon river. St Thomas Island to be specific where they crossed. Each was the old Irish for horse, now it’s Capall.
I could be wrong but, was Galway not named for the river goddess Gaillimh? I never knew the proper translation, so that explanation made alot of sense to me growing up
My family originates from County Kerry. My mother always mistaken as black/ brown person , as she had dark skin and dark brown eyes. I wonder if the Brown / Black of Kerry refers to the skin colour..also known as Black Irish.
Black Irish , as I understand it , as in my own family, are black/ very dark haired people but unusually, and this is distinctively Irish, with a notably pale/ fresh complexion and blue , grey or green eyes . These are apparently the eye colours which predominate in this country ,even with the really dark hair , a rare combination of colouring and to me , instantly recognisable. A relative ,pale complexioned , grey eyed ,with wavy blue - black hair was once described as having “hair like a water - dog !
@@nicnaimhin2978 yes she had the black wavy hair to. My Gandad was Donohue origins County Kerry, he had dark black hair, dark brown eyes, but light skin. His children were fair skinned to dark, the darkest my mother. She looked like she had a permanent tan and in summer darker still. ( she was called paki or halfcast)
Well, what a coincidence, i recently read a wiki article about Laval Graf Nugent von Westmeath which was an officer of irish origin in the army of the austrian empire. And unfamiliar with irish counties (apart from the more famous ones) i hadn't heard of Westmeath before, now thanks to the video i have some geographical idea of where that is and why it's named that way.
I love the way irish Surname are so linked to areas.. there has been much movement over time but when I hear of a Ryan I think Tipp or McCarthy in instantly thinking Cork. My own surname, Marrinan, can not be pronounced or spelled outside of Clare 😂
Dia duit , a fhear uasal . Just thought I'd throw in a little of what I have researched , le meas , just that Gaillimh might also mean Stony River from the shortened gaill abhain and that Ceathar Loch may also mean Four Lakes . Great stuff . FYI , Lu shares the same root as London - Lugdinium - the name the Romans tacked onto it when they rocked up there in the first century .
Galway .. the town is named after the river (or vice versa). Galway and Corrib are very similar-sounding words. I'm guessing they were the exact same at one point .. and eventually 'separated'.
There were people in Ireland before the Celts - so older language derivatives survive from that time. So placenames often give Irish language officionados problems, because they don't make any sense in Irish.
I think you would need to ask an Irish language academic about that. My thinking is that traces of older language would survive in Irish language, just as for example Norse words survive in English.@@Halbared
This information has been absorbed. It will now be stored somewhere deep in the realms of my mind, so that if the day comes, I can talk to a local and get 50% of the facts right, which is enough to be invited for a beer or some food.
Very interesting. I didn't know that. I wonder too if 'long' in Longford isn't the Irish for ship - hence ship port? I remember having to learn the names of all the counties in Irish and English at school in the 1950s but I don't recall being given an explanation for them. Place names could be confusing. For instance, my teacher could couldn't tell me how Bagenalstown became Muine Bheag in Irish. It's only recently I thought to look it up and discovered it meant small thicket😂😂
@@bahoonies Longford or longphort was a word the irish used to describe a viking settlement (ship -port as you mentioned), over time it was used to describe a fortification with no viking connections, this is the case for County Longford (O'Farrell's camp/fortification)
I'm interested in how our versions of Gaelic differ, Scots to Irish. I am aware that Irish was the original and the Scots Gaelic is the bairn. I am learning my own but I was also thinking that it may be as well to learn both. Slainte mhath.
Would love to see a breakdown of all the Irish places that begin with Clon e.g., Clonakilty, Clontarf, Cloncurry etc. I believe Clon is a prefix meaning place, so the remainder of the name describes it. Cloncurry apparently means dry place but I'm obviously not Irish let alone an Irish historian or linguist so your insight would be deeply appreciated. Though dry place would be extremely suitable seeing that my hometown in Northwest Queensland, Australia is called Cloncurry. It's hot, dry and I've been there when temperatures have reached 49 degrees Celsius almost daily. I's said to have been named after Lady Cloncurry of Galway County who was cousin to an explorer. Hopefully one day I'll get to step foot in Cloncurry, Ireland when I eventually return for my third visit. I miss your beautiful country and especially my Irish loved ones and I've yet to explore the West/Northwest parts and can't wait until I do.
So Monaghan doesn't mean Little Munster. Attributed to the friendliness of the people being comparable to that of Munster people. Carlow is not four lakes? The Vikings used Irish to name Dublin? The Burren doesn't resemble a board? If I was exporting sheep I wouldn't call the port after the rams which are very few in number in any flock and would most likely be retained for breeding. Just saying. .
Boarders - like pirates boarding a ship or boarders , attending boarding school, or do you mean a BORDER , as between two countries?! Sorry , I live near one , the misspelling really grates !🤔 Also think great video!
Will you make videos about The Fianna and the other super powered Irish lads you mentioned in the video?? Our mythology is amazing but unless you're in baby infants classes you never hear about it 🥲
Thank you. This helped me a lot in my research on the kingdoms of Ireland. I have been making videos on Irish landmarks and there is no way to show them without going into the amazing history behind each one. All that history is interconnected and each day I learn a tiny bit more of the very rich history Ireland has had for the last 10000 years.
@markosbourne5967 What a foolish reply indeed. Half the Population of Ireland over a few Centuries, Starved, Murdered, Enslaved, Jailed. and forced out to the four corners of the World.
This video in very partial...and misleading and Inaccurate on many points ...Tuatha de Danaan... refers to the Goddess Danu...the powerful pre Celtic Goddess..but this was glossed over here as in most glib references in HIStory. Bloody Mary was the name given to Mary Tudor...as she battled against the Protestants. The Irish Catholics would have another angle on that. etc etc.
The true history of Ireland, in however many installments necessary, would be very welcome. The colonial narrative has pervaded the collective consciousness for too long.
I grew up believing that I was mostly Irish, but have since learned through DNA analysis that my mom is mostly Scots-English. Dad's people (both Brady and McPartland sides) mostly originate in and around County Cavan, but just about all come from Ireland starting in the mid-1800s. I can only claim to have stepped foot in Ireland by way of a refueling stop at Shannon Airport long enough for me to briefly disembark. Two of my sisters' children each shared vows with their respective spouses on islands that separate Scotland and Ireland without knowing their genetic connection with this region. If I were to ever decide to become an expat of the US, it would be in Ireland.
The name 'Wicklow' was overlooked in this clip. Ireland's youngest county (1606) is named after its county town, Wicklow which was named by Danish Vikings that settled on the existing Irish settlement of Inbhearr Dí (Inverdee) / Kilmantin (Cill Mhantáin) in the 10th century. They named it 'Vyknigelo' / meadow of the Viking which, in time became Wicklow.
Swift BS called on the.Vikings sailing up the Liffey, and naming the settlement Dubh Linn, meaning black pool... why would the Vikings have been speaking Irish upon arrival? lol
Great explanation of the counties in Irish.. However, I must point out that even in English, Co. Tyrone is pronounced Teer-own or T'rone.. NEVER pronounced "Tire-own" as there's no "y" in Irish.. It's only the Americans who pronounce it "Tire-own" as its a Christian name there. .. 😮
County Londonderry. There never was a County Derry as the name Derry was a Gaelic placename for the area that became the town, and because counties are an entirely Norman invention. As for Tyrconnell, that is not a county name, 1922-1927 experiment aside, it's just a reference to a Gaelic petty King whose land was near enough for the Gaelgóirs coming up with the 'Irish' name. There was a County Coleraine before County Londonderry however.
