Translation of Irish Village name

Deagol · 29-10-2019 11:49PM #1

Hi all, moving to a new village soon and I'm keen to understand what the Irish name means. I've tried a few translators but I'm getting contradictory results and the most plausible one seems to be a very strange name for a village.

The Irish is: Fíoch Rua - In English is 'Connolly' but pretty sure that's not a translation!

Anyone able to help?

saabsaab · 30-10-2019 12:41AM

Could be fioch as a word for a land and rua for red = red land ? Maybe the soil is red in colour there? Often names describe some feature of the place. Perhaps someone acquainted with the area would know what it might describe.

twowheelsonly · 30-10-2019 12:55AM

What's the English name ? Can often work backwards from there...

qwertyuiopa · 30-10-2019 01:20AM

A 'fíodhach' is a wooded area, so it could well mean 'the red wood'

Deagol · 30-10-2019 10:38AM

Thanks for the suggestions - both look much better than what I had figured (red rage..but it just didn't sound likely)!

I'll ask locally to see if there's anyone who knows. I do know the ground in the front garden is pretty red so might be that - but I'll take a look at older OS maps and see if there's anything about woodland.

Deagol · 30-10-2019 10:51AM

If anyone is interested.... based on the suggestions here, I was able to approach the search from the other side and I found the answer!

Clare county libraries; James Frost's history of Clare records Feighroe (anglicization) as meaning 'red wood'.

Again, thanks to all!

Insect Overlord · 30-10-2019 10:55AM

Glad to see that one worked out!

Logainm.ie is great for this kind of query as well.

https://www.logainm.ie/ga/129116?s=Connolly

Translation of Irish Village name

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