Wednesday, 4 October at 8.15pm in the Sheraton Hotel, Athlone

Talk by Dr Aengus Ó Fionnagáin

Speaker Dr Aengus Ó Fionnagáin is a lecturer in Irish at the University of Limerick. He studied Irish and Geography at U. of Galway (BA 2007) and completed a PhD in Modern Irish (U. of Galway 2012). From 2013-15 he worked on projects such as Logainm.ie (placenames database of Ireland) and Dúchas.ie (digitisation of the national folklore collection), in DCU. He has a keen interest in Irish placenames and surnames, and all aspects of Irish literature and language from 1600 to the present.

His most recent publication is Léann na Sionainne (2023, co-edited with Gordon Ó Riain), a volume of essays on various topics relating to Irish language and literature from the early modern period to the present day. He has published articles on Irish surnames and placenames in a range of peer-reviewed journals, in addition to numerous book chapters on similar topics. Most recently, his study of the sociolinguistic history of the Irish language in Co. Westmeath 1600-1900 was published in Westmeath history and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (2022, 29th volume of the prestigious Irish County History and Society series by Geography Publications). He is currently working on a book on the placenames of the Athlone area, and on a more long-term project on the townland names of Co. Westmeath. He is also the coordinator of the Westmeath Field Names Project (2018-23), and has published three reports on the progress of the project to date.

Summary This talk will feature a discussion of the origins, meaning and historical development of a number of townland names, field names (current and historic) and other minor placenames in the Athlone area. The interaction of the Irish and English languages in the area will be discussed briefly, by way of introduction to the topic. This will be followed by a discussion of the nature and importance of the key sources for the study of the area’s placenames, including; Ordnance Survey records, Down Survey maps, State Papers, Deeds, & Irish-language sources. Mention will be made of placenames in St Mary’s & St Peter’s parishes, as well as in some areas adjoining these parishes. There will be a particular focus on the landscape around the town and on the many placenames which reflect its most distinguishing natural features.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the Irish topographical terms which occur in placenames locally: béal, bealach, bogán, bun, caladh, carraig, cluain, coill, corr, currach, creag, doire, eanach, eiscir, gabhlán, lag, lathach, loch, machaire, maigh, muine, oileán, tulach and srath. These words refer, variously, to the hard and the soft ground around the town, the passes and the boggy impasses, the hills, hollows, ridges, meadows, plains, callows, woods, waterways, and bogs. Many of these features have endured till the present day, others have disappeared in recent times, others still allow us to appreciate the landscape as it was in the more distant past.