Gaeilgeoirs enjoy night of Irish traditions and placenames
A bi-lingual night to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge was held in The Brandon House Hotel on Wednesday last, organised by the local branch of Conradh na Gaeilge.
It began with a lecture on placenames given by guest speaker Áine Ní Fhiannúsa who is a native Irish speaker and accomplished singer from Cappaquin, County Waterford.
She spoke bi-lingually with verve and humour and highlighted how various places got their names; sometimes from natural geographical features, from battles and conflicts, from practices and customs, from names of chieftains or clergy and even the inexplicable.
Áine used examples of towns, townlands, roads, rivers, sea inlets and more as she explained the various placenames. She also documented the importance of different periods in our history on placenames from the Fenian era down to the present day.
The branch chairman, Sean Ó hUiginn thanked Áine and praised her for an extraordinary and inspirational delivery. After a cup of tea some tunes from much acclaimed fiddle-player John Dwyer were performed and then everyone was on the floor for The Walls of Limerick. Myra Foley, who helped to organise the event, said: ‘A couple of solo singers contributed and we rounded off our celebration appropriately with group singing of some popular Irish songs led by Áine Ní Fhiannúsa.’