Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Gortagowan in Galway, Kerry, and Tyrone ; Gort-a'-ghobhann, field of the gow or smith. See Gobha, vol. i. p. 222 [reproduced below].
In a state of society when war was regarded as the most noble of all professions, and before the invention of gunpowder, those who manufactured swords and spears were naturally looked upon as very important personages. In Ireland they were held in great estimation; and in the historical and legendary tales, we find the smith was often a powerful chieftain, who made arms for himself and his relations. We know that Vulcan was one of the most powerful of the Grecian gods, and the ancient Irish had their Goban, the Dedannan smith-god, who figures in many of the ancient romances. The land possessed by smiths, or the places where they resided, may in many cases be determined by the local names. Gobha [gow] is a smith, old Irish form goba; old Welsh gob, now gof; Cornish and Breton gof. The usual genitive form is gobhan [gown], but it is often the same as the nominative; and both forms are reproduced in names, the former being commonly made gowan or gown, and the latter gow. Both terminations are very common, and may be generally translated "of the smith," or if it be nagowan, "of the smiths." Ballygowan, Ballygow, and Ballingowan, the town of the smith, are the names of numerous places through the four provinces; and there are several townlands in Ulster and Munster called Ballynagowan, the town of the smiths. Occasionally the Irish genitive plural is made goibne, which in the west of Ireland is anglicised guivnia, givna, etc.; as in Carrownaguivna and Ardgivna, Sligo, the quarter-land, and the height, of the smiths. Sometimes the genitive singular is made goe or go in English; as we find in Athgoe near Newcastle in Dublin, the smith's ford; Kinego in Tyrone and Donegal, the smith's head or hill (ceann); Ednego near Dromore in Down, the hill-brow (eudan) of the smith. It takes a different form in Clongowes in Kildare, the smith's meadow, where there is now a Roman Catholic college - the same name as Cloongown in Cork.