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Irish Place Names

Faha
Faithche, 'lawn', 'field', 'exercise green'.

Fahan (Donegal)
Fathain, 'grave'.
The name refers to the monastic site here with a graveyard.

Do not confuse with

Fahan
Fán, 'slope'.

Galbally
An Gallbhaile, 'the foreigner's townland'.
The 'foreigner' here is English, and probably the Anglo-Norman Fitzgeralds, who settled here early in the Norman invasion. The name exists elsewhere, for example in Tyrone and Wexford.

Gallen (Offaly)
Mainistir Ghailline, 'monastery of Gallen'
Gallen Priory here is said to derive its name from Gallen of the Britons (Galline na mBretan), a chief whose own name has been translated as 'Dishonoured Spear'. The monastery itself, of which nothing remains above ground, was founded in the 5th century here by St Canoc.

Geashill (Offaly)
Géisill, 'place of swans'
Presumably the swans were on a lake by the castle here, or on the upper reaches of the Tullamore River.

From the Appletree Press title: Irish Place Names.
Also from Appletree: Irish Family Names, A Little Book of Irish Family Names and the Book of Irish Names.

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