Logainmneacha na hÉireann
Baile Beo
Reclaiming Irish place names
Irish place names were anglicised over centuries. We never restored them. Let's start.
Free iPhone & Android App
"Irish placenames dry out when anglicised, like twigs snapped off from a tree."Tim Robinson — Connemara: Listening to the Wind (2006)
Cad atá ann
How it works
Logainmneacha
60,000 Irish place names
Towns and villages across the island — each with its Irish name, meaning, and local history.
Léarscáil
Discover what's around you
Open the app anywhere in Ireland and learn about the history that surrounds you, and the ancient monuments that you pass every day.
Stair
Revive our ancient past
Become immersed in the complex history that gave every town and village its very name.
"Once you realise that 'Mainistir Eimhín' means (Saint) Evin's Monastery, and 'Monasterevin' doesn't mean anything at all, then you start to notice that kind of thing on every road sign."Dave McGinn — Founder, Baile Beo
An aip
See it in your hands
Fúinn
About Baile Beo
Baile Beo is an app for Irish place names — and the histories, meanings, and stories they carry.
Every town, village, and parish in Ireland has an Irish-language name that describes the land — its geography, history, ecology, mythology. Through centuries of colonisation, plantation and anglicisation, those names were pushed aside: distorted into anglicised versions, displaced from everyday use. This coincided with the suppression of the Irish language itself.
Despite the establishment in 1922 of an independent Irish state, these artificial English place names remain.
In recent years, alongside the revival of the Irish language there is a renewed appetite to reassert our proud and rich Gaelic identity, and with that there is an imperative to discard colonial impositions including in our place names.
Baile Beo supports that mission. Whether you're fluent in Irish or a foghlaimeoir, it puts the real names of Ireland back in your hands.
Get early access to Baile Beo
Free iPhone & Android App