Booley or Boley?

With the Booley fair under way, perhaps the old qestion of whether it should be pronounced booley or boley will once again rear its head.

Lets look at it, the word booley is derived from the Irish buachailleacht, the practice of cow herding.


Youn may notice the word buachaill in there, buachaill is the normal Irish word for boy, it originally meant cow herd.

The word booley does not derive DIRECTLY from 'bó', a milking cow but buachaill is ultimately related to it.

Basically, the word buachailleacht would be pronounced 'BOOX-all-taxt' in Irish, much more similar to booley than boley.

HOWEVER, in Clonduff Irish, buachtailleacht would seem to have been pronounced 'BO-al-at', a little more similar to boley.

Therefore, it is not an open and shut case, and both arguements have merit.

If I personally had to chose between the two however, I would go with booley, it is simply alot more simple.

Irish in Hilltown in 1890

"R.L. Praeger—a nephew of Patterson—writes of Hilltown in 1937: ‘Half a century ago, when I first knew it, it was a “backward” place—one might still hear Irish spoken by the old people, who were full of old tales.’ And again in 1941: ‘When I first knew Hilltown, fifty years ago, you could still hear Irish spoken if you knew where to find it.’[i]"

Ciarán Duibhín

[i] R.L. Praeger, The Way That I Went (Dublin and London, 1937), p 127; id., A Populous Solitude (Dublin, 1941), p 63.

Focail? - Words?

Má tá facal nó dhó agad fhéin de Ghaedhilg Uibh Eathach nó Mhúrna, ní bíodh aon leisc oraibh cur in iúl don bhlag seo.

If you have any Co. Down Irish words, let me know!

Scoil Úr - A new school

Beidh scoil úr lánGhaeilge sna Beannaí Boirche i mbliana. Scéal iontach don athbheochan na Gaeilge i nDeisceart an Dúin.

Tuilleamh eolas ar ball.