Irish Place Names: D-G

• A – B
• C
• D – G
• K – L
• M – O
• R – T

Names beginning with Derry-

These are uniformly derived from Doire, meaning a wood.

• Derrybawn Doirí Bán
  Bán means white, so “The white wood”.
• Derryharney Doirí Charna
  Charna refers to the Kearneys, a family, so “Kearney’s Wood”

The Kearney’s show up again in Donnycarney, (Kearney’s church) but whether they are the same lot I don’t know.

Names beginning with Doon- or Dun-

Both come from dún, meaning fort. Yes, more forts! So far we have had Caher- and Cashel-, now Dun- and Doon-, with Lis- and Rath- yet to come. There were many of them about in old Ireland and the different words describe different types of fort. Duns were important forts, usually belonging to a king or chieftain.

• Doonbeg Dún Beag
  Beag means small, so this is “The small fort”. Dunbeg in Co Clare is close to Dunmore, which is “The big fort”.
• Dundalk Dún Dealgan
  Dealga was a person, so this was the location of “Dealga’s Fort”

Names beginning with Donagh- and Donny-

Confusingly names starting Don- are often the same as Dun- (as in Donaraile), but Donagh and Donny- derive from Domhnach meaning “church”. Again they can refer to a person’s church (and most often do) or some characteristic of the church or its location.

• Donnybrook Domhnach Broc
  Means “The Church of Broc”, a little known saint. There was nothing saintly however about the fairs held there which were notorious for their drunkenness and violent outbursts and gave the english language the word Donnybrook.

Names beginning with Ennis- or -Inis

Ennis or Inis can mean either an island or land by a river. Ennis-, Inish- and Inch- (more often -inch), which all appear in english versions of names, are pretty much the same thing and which meaning applies is easily discerned from the location of the place.

• Ennis Inis
  The name of the Co Clare town simply means “By the river”.
• Enniskean Inis Céin
  “Cian’s land by the river”
• Ennistimon Inis Diomáin
  Diomáin means devil, but why this harmless town came to be called “the island of the Devil” is not known.
• Inishfree Inis Fraoigh
  Fraoigh means heather so this is “the Island of heather”
• Inishbofin Inis Bó Finne
  Bó means cow and Finne means white (in the sense of celestial white), so the Island of the white cow was probably home once to a very special bovine.

Names beginning with Glen-

Yes, you’ve guessed it, it means “valley or glen”, from the Irish ‘gleann‘. The second parts of these names are more interesting, because they almost invariably describe the valley.

• Glengarrif An Gleann Garbh
  Garbh means rocky or rugged, so this is “the rocky valley” and anyone who has been there will know that it fits.
• Glendalough Gleann Dá Loch
  Dá means tow, and Loch means lake, so this means “the Valley of the two lakes”, which indeed it is.

Glan- usually also means glen, appearing in some names probably because the it is close to the Irish pronunciation of the work Gleann.