Glasson scholar to explore Athlone’s placenames and history in talk

Glasson native Dr Aengus Ó Fionnagáin is set to deliver a talk entitled ‘Athlone, placenames, maps and settlement’ next month.

The event takes place in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel on Wednesday, October 1, at 7pm.

Dr Ó Fionnagáin, a lecturer in Irish at the University of Limerick, will explore what placenames reveal about Athlone’s growth and development as an urban centre. He will begin with the origins of the town’s own name, Baile Átha Luain, earlier Áth Luain, probably meaning “the ford of the brightness”, and trace both literary and local interpretations of its meaning.

The talk will also focus on Athlone’s late seventeenth-century maps, created during a period of military and strategic importance. These maps give rare insight into the town’s layout, its connection with the surrounding landscape, and the economic significance of lands adjoining the town walls.

Surviving records from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries list more than 80 historic field names and plots in the east-town area alone, most of Irish-language origin, which will be explored in detail.

Among other topics, Dr Ó Fionnagáin will highlight notable sites such as the Spittle House, thought to have been a leper hospital, Cloch Riocaird, the castle of the Earl of Clanrickarde, and Athlone’s many fishing weirs, drawing on his most recent research.

A graduate of the University of Galway (BA 2007, PhD 2012), Dr Ó Fionnagáin has worked on national heritage projects including Logainm.ie and Dúchas.ie. His academic work focuses on Irish placenames, surnames, and literature from 1600 onwards. He is currently preparing a book entitled The Placenames of Athlone and District: Language, Settlement and Topography, while also pursuing a long-term study of Westmeath’s townland names.

As coordinator of the Westmeath Field Names Project (2018–2025), he has published five progress reports to date. Alongside his academic career, he is a keen local historian. His publications include a history of the Low Road between Ballykeeran and Glasson, and a short history of Tubberclair Parish, with further work planned.

This forthcoming talk promises to cast new light on the deep ties between language, landscape, and the story of Athlone.