Ar fáil anois · Available now
Baile Beo Órga
Plan your drive through Ireland, and hear the stories behind the names along the way.
Órga is the membership for Baile Beo. Plan routes around the places you want to see, listen to narrated histories of towns and monuments, and keep a record of every journey you take.
€24.99 a year · Baile Beo is free. Join Órga from inside the app.
Éist · Listen
Hear a place before you reach it
With Órga, Journey Mode can read you the story of a town as you pass through it, from where its Irish name came from to the people and events that shaped it. Here's the narration for Enniscorthy.
Narrated stories are rolling out across Ireland, with new places added regularly.
Enniscorthy
Inis Córthaidh
Co. Wexford
Read the transcript
Enniscorthy sits at the lowest fordable crossing of the River Slaney before the sea — a spot that made it strategically vital for centuries. Its Irish name, Inis Córthaidh, likely honours a personal name, though one old account reads it as "island of the chest."
The Normans arrived in the 1160s, and by 1190 Philip De Prendergast had built a stone castle on the Slaney's west bank. It later passed to the Kavanagh and Roche families. In 1459, Donal Kavanagh founded a Franciscan friary, destroyed under Cromwell; its stones later helped build Saint Aidan's Cathedral.
Enniscorthy's defining moment came in 1798. On 21 June, the Battle of Vinegar Hill saw around sixteen thousand United Irishmen, many armed only with pikes, make their last stand against thirteen thousand government troops. Hundreds died before survivors retreated toward Wexford and Wicklow.
Today, the restored Enniscorthy Castle houses the Wexford County Museum — nearly eight hundred years of history under one roof.
Route Planner
Plan a road trip around the places you want to see
Choose the castles, ringforts, abbeys and towns you want to visit and Órga builds the route between them. Or start from a route, such as Dublin to Galway, and see every place you'll pass on the way.
Save your routes and open them again when it's time to set off.
Audio Narration
Stories of each place, read aloud as you travel
Keep your eyes on the road. As you drive through a narrated place, Baile Beo tells you where its name came from and what happened there.
Journey History
A record of every journey you take
Every Journey is saved with its route and the towns and monuments you passed. Look back at a holiday, a Sunday drive or a trip home, and pick up where you left off.
Download your favourites and browse them anywhere, even without signal.
Members get a discount on our Irish place name prints.
Baile Beo is an independent Irish project. Membership pays for the research that brings more places to the map.
Cé dó · Who it's for
Made for the road
Planning a trip to Ireland
Build an itinerary around the heritage sites you want to see, and find out what the town names on the road signs mean as you drive the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland's Ancient East or anywhere in between.
Visiting where your family came from
Find the Irish name of the town your family came from, plan a route there, and keep a record of the trip.
Exploring closer to home
Weekend drives, school runs and trips to the in-laws. There's a story in every townland you've driven through a hundred times.
Saor in aisce agus Órga · Free and Órga
What's included
| Feature | Free | Órga |
|---|---|---|
| Irish place names and their meanings on the map | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browse towns and monuments | ✓ | ✓ |
| Journey Mode: place names appear as you travel | ✓ | ✓ |
| Favourites | ✓ | ✓ |
| Route Planner | — | ✓ |
| Audio narration | — | ✓ |
| Journey History | — | ✓ |
| Offline access | — | ✓ |
| Discounts on prints | — | ✓ |
| Free | €24.99/yr |
Ceisteanna · Questions
Common questions
How do I join Órga?
Download Baile Beo for free on iPhone or Android and sign in with your email. Then open the Órga screen in the app and subscribe. Payment is handled by the App Store or Google Play.
How much does it cost?
€24.99 a year. It renews each year, and you can cancel at any time from your App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Is every place narrated?
Not yet. Narrations are being recorded region by region and new places are added regularly. Every place in the app shows its Irish name, and many also have a meaning and written history you can read.
Does it work without signal?
Partly. With Órga you can download your favourites and browse them without signal. Journey Mode, the Route Planner and narration need a data connection.
I have a promo code. Where do I enter it?
Sign in to the app, open the Órga screen, and enter your code there.
Do I need Órga to use Baile Beo?
No. Baile Beo is free, including the map of Irish place names, their meanings, browsing towns and monuments, and Journey Mode. Órga adds route planning, narration, journey history and offline access.
Get Órga in the Baile Beo app
Download Baile Beo for free, then join Órga from inside the app.
€24.99 a year · iPhone & Android