Information about Foher

Information from O'Donovan's Field Name Books

Standard Name:
Foher
Irish Form of Name:
Fothair
Translation:
a wood or forest (see O’Clery)
Civil Parish:
Ballynakill in the barony of Ballynahinch
View all place names in this civil parish.
Other Forms of the Name with authority source (if provided) in italics:
Foher
Fothair
Foher B. S.
Foher County Map
Foher Rev. J. Griffin, P.P.
Description:
Alexander Thompson, Esquire, Proprietor.
Situation:
At the inmost point of Little Killery, is bounded E. by Killery Harbour, S. by Letteretterin, W. by Salruck. A road from Westport to the mouth of Killery Harbour, lies along the N. side of it.

Information From Joyce's Place Names

Translation according to P. W. Joyce:
Foher in Galway; Fothar, a forest: Fohera in Leitrim is the plural (Foithre)—forests. See vol. ii. 350 [reproduced below].
Wood; forest. The word fothar [fohar] is given by Peter O'Connell in his dictionary, as meaning a forest; and he also gives the plural form foithre. It is a term often met with in Irish writings, though it is not given in the dictionaries of O'Brien and O'Reilly. In ancient times there was a woody district to the north-west of Birr in King's County, which is called in the annals, Fothar-Dealbhnach, i.e. the forest of Delvin, from the old district in which it was situated; and though this great wood has long since disappeared, its name and memory are preserved in the townland of Ballaghanoher, halfway between Birr and Banagher, which correctly represents the sound of the old name, as the Four Masters write it, Bealach-an-fhothair, the road of the forest. The word more commonly occurs, however, in the plural form of foithre [fihra, fira, fweera], which is often understood to mean underwood, or copse, or forest land, and is anglicised in several ways. Gortnafira, in the parish of Mogeely in Cork, not far from the village of Tallow, signifies the field of the underwood. There is a townland near the village of Ferbane in King's County, which gives name to a parish, now called Wheery, but locally pronounced Fweehra, which is a correct anglicised representation of Foithre, woods; and from this also is named the townland of Curraghwheery, the marsh of Wheery. In the parish of Kilbelfad in Mayo, south-west of Ballina, on the shore of Lough Conn, this name is found in the form of Wherrew; and in Kerry the idea of plurality is conveyed by the addition of the s of the English inflection, forming Fieries, the name of two places, one in the parish of Molahiffe, four miles from Milltown, and the other near Castleisland.

Information From Griffith's Valution

Area in Acres, Roods and Perches:
A.R.P.
623 0 24
Land value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
44 10 3
Building value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
0 0 0
Total value at the time in pounds, shillings and pence:
£.s.d.
44 10 3
Heads of housholds living in the townland at this time:

Townland Information

What is a townland?:
A townland is one of the smallest land divisions in Ireland. They range in size from a few acres to thousands of acres. Many are Gaelic in origin, but some came into existence after the Norman invasion of 1169
Townland:
Foher is a townland.
Other placesnames in this townland:
Some other placenames in or near this townland are...

Information From Maps

Original OS map of this area.
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Ireland was first mapped in the 1840s. These original maps are available online.
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Foher
Original OS maps at the Ordnance Survey of Ireland website.
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This link is not a link to the townland that you are currently researching; however, if you follow this link, you will see a search box near the top of the page which you can use to search for your townland.
Having followed this link, you will see several expandable links - each link has a plus sign on its left - on the top left of the page. Expand 'Base Information and Mapping'. Now it is possible to select the maps that you wish to view by clicking on the checkbox that is on the left of each map; this list includes the original Ordnance Survey maps.
You can select more than one map and you can use a slider to make one map more transparent than another. This allows you to view what features were present or absent at different points in time.
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Foher
Information from the Down Survey Website.
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The Down Survey website will tell you who owned this townland in 1641 (pre Cromwell) and in 1671 (post Cromwell).
Down Survey Website
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Information from Google Maps.
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You can use this link to find this townland on Google Maps.
Google Maps
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Information from the National Monuments Service.
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You can use this link to view a map of archaelogical features.
This link brings you to a website wherein you will have to search for your townland.
Archaeological map from the National Monuments Service

Neighbouring Townlands

List of townlands that share a border with this townland:
This is a list of townlands that share a border with this townland.

Population and Census Information

People who lived here:
You can retrieve a list of people who lived in this townland from 1827 to 1911. This list is compiled from the following resources.
  • The Tithe Applotment Books
  • Griffith's Valuation
  • 1901 Census
  • 1911 Census
List of nineteenth century and early twentieth century inhabitants of this townland.
Church records of births, deaths and marriages:
Church records of births, deaths and marriages are available online at http://www.rootsireland.ie. To search these records you will need to know the 'church parish' rather than the 'civil parish'. (The civil parish is the pre-reformation parish and was frequently used as a unit of administration in the past.)
Foher is in the civil parish of Ballynakill in the barony of Ballynahinch.
Roman Catholic parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Roman Catholic parish or parishes.
  • Ballynakill/Letterfrack/ Tullycross
  • Inishbofin
Church of Ireland parishes:
This civil parish corresponds with the following Church of Ireland parish.
  • Ballinakill
  • Renvyle
In general, the civil parish and the Church of Ireland parish are the same, but, this is not always the case.

Other Sources

Information from the Logainm database.
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