placenamesDoohooma
Dumha Thuama
The Henry family archive connects Doohooma’s everyday trading life with community action and the childhood of an Irish-language translator.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Dumha Thuama · Irish · main form · validated name
- Doohooma · English · main form
- Doohoma · English · main form · local name
Place & story
The family business
Jim Henry was born in Doohoma in 1918, in the building later known as the Sea Rod Inn. His family archive records that his father Phelim bought the property and a hotel licence with savings from English coal-mining work. Phelim and Margaret also ran a shop and provided undertaking services. Margaret continued the business after Phelim’s death in 1946, until 1966. [2]
Making a cemetery
The family account credits Phelim Henry with organising local volunteers to establish a cemetery at Doohoma, avoiding the journey to Kiltane for burials. It recalls the volunteers preparing and enclosing the ground before its consecration by the bishop of Killala. The account also remembers local labour making an access road. [2]
From Doohoma to Joyce
Jim attended Doohoma National School before studying medicine in Dublin. He later translated James Joyce’s Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and The Dead into Irish. His family records his repeated returns to Doohoma. [2] [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Doohooma. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Jim Henry: Early Days · The Henry family
- Jim Henry: A Lifetime’s Odyssey · The Henry family
- The Sea Rod Inn, Doohooma, as photographed in 2010 illustration: based on a The "Sea Rod Inn", Doohooma by Oliver Dixon. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-08-26. How this page was prepared.