These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
An Féar Bán· Irish · main form · validated name
Ferbane· English · main form
Place & story
People & connections
Mary Ward’s scientific eye
Mary Ward was born at Ballylin, Ferbane, in 1827. Educated at home, she developed interests in astronomy and natural history, and her father bought her a microscope when she was eighteen. She prepared detailed drawings of specimens and gave demonstrations to relatives, friends and estate workers. The scientist David Brewster encouraged her work and used her illustrations in his publications. Ward also observed the construction of her cousin Lord Rosse's telescope at Birr. Her scientific life therefore connected careful observation at Ballylin with a wider network of instruments, correspondence and publication.[2]
A Thursday market on the Brosna
Samuel Lewis's 1837 description places the town, then written Farbane, partly in Galen parish and partly in Wherry. He records 106 houses, a Thursday market and fairs in August and October. The bridge over the Brosna was central to his account, linking the town with the road from Clara to Banagher. A parish church, a recently built Catholic chapel and a dispensary served the locality. The older parish names matter for family-history research: records concerning the same town may be catalogued under either parish and under the former county name, King's County.[3]
Holding water in Ferbane Bog
Ferbane Bog lies northwest of the town and includes a domed area of raised peat surrounded by ground affected by former turf-cutting. The Living Bog project identified drainage as a major cause of drying, including the spread of pines into parts of the bog. Restoration between August and December 2019 blocked almost sixteen kilometres of drains and installed nearly 1,200 peat dams, alongside some plastic barriers. The aim was to retain water so that the bog's characteristic wet habitats could recover. This is a documented change in land management within a landscape long associated with peat use.[4]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Ferbane — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Ferbane, Offaly — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Ferbane, Offaly — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Ferbane, Offaly — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ferbane, Offaly
Published census settlement populations
1,191people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames
