County Galway

Click the plus sign to reopen the map and choose a different county:

How An Irish Name Becomes an English Name

Many readers often ask about the origin of an Irish first name in their family tree. Sometimes, it’s an unlikely Irish name such as “Jeremiah” – or sometimes a rare name such as “Gobnait”. It’s no secret that many of our shared Irish roman catholic ancestors borrowed names from the saints and angels of the…

Read More

Galway Bay and the Music and Songs of Connaught (#744)

Welcome to this special musical edition of the Letter from Ireland podcast. We take a tour around the five counties – Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon – of the Irish province of Connaught. We have chosen two songs/pieces of music from each County with plenty of history and stories along the way. We hope…

Read More
Celtic cross in Irish church graveyard

How The Irish Saved Civilisation (#742)

In this episode, we look at the time of the Brehon laws of Ireland and take an example of just some of these Gaelic common laws that held our society together. We also chat about the Brehon families and some of the Irish surnames associated with these families. We then go on to chat about…

Read More

Old Irish Culture and Traditions (#729)

In this very special episode we take a trip around Inishmore – the largest of the Aran Islands – in the company of Cyril O’Flaherty. Cyril is a well known local historian and artist and gives a special insight into many old Irish culture and traditions as we travel around – many of which are…

Read More

Solving The Mystery of Irish Surnames – Two Examples (#723)

Many readers often ask about the origin of an Irish first name in their family tree. Sometimes, it’s an unlikely Irish name such as “Jeremiah” – or sometimes a rare name such as “Gobnait”. It’s no secret that many of our shared Irish roman catholic ancestors borrowed names from the saints and angels of the…

Read More