Letter Archive
Welcome to the letter archive page for the weekly "Letter from Ireland". We started to write these letters in 2013 covering Irish Genealogy & Family History, Irish Surnames, Irish Culture & Customs and Ireland Travel, here you'll find a link to all of them.
Browse the letters listed on this page and jump to one that interests you, or enter a placename, surname or other item in the search box below to see related letters.
All of our weekly letters to date
Today we’re looking at Viking, Norman, Galloglass and Planter (English and Scottish) names. Let’s take a few examples using the ancestral family of one of our Readers – Patricia Clarke (thanks, Patricia J ). Patricia gave me six of her family names: Byrnes, Clarke, Halpin, Leonard, Martin and Rafferty. While I may be COMPLETELY incorrect…
Would you like to run an Irish Castle for a day? Sound exciting? But we’re not talking about just a castle – also the large family estate of lands that surround it. A few weeks back, Carina and myself went to County Galway and visited Aughnanure castle in Oughterard. Ever been there? Aughnanure was the…
Here on the Letter from Ireland – we focus on your Irish surnames and where in Ireland they come from – why? Simply because this matters to people! The 3 most common questions I get asked are: My name is “O’whatishisname” – is it Irish? Where in Ireland does the name come from? My great…
One of the most frequent questions I get asked by my readers is; ‘Is my surname Scottish or Irish?’ One of them (with the surname Scott!) asked “Is Scott Irish or Scottish?” (I had to read that one twice). Now, I don’t know about her particular circumstances, but I thought it was a great question to…