placenamesAill na Brón
Aill na Brón near Cill Chiaráin has strong documented connections with Connemara’s oral storytelling and song traditions.
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
- Aill na Brón · Irish · main form
Place & story
Éamon a Búrc and the folklore collectors
Aill na Brón was home to the storyteller Éamon a Búrc, whose repertoire came to wider attention when Liam Mac Coisdeala collected from him for the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1930s. His material ranged from local lore to long heroic narratives. The biographical account records his regret that collecting had not begun decades earlier, when more of the older storytelling world remained around him. [2]
Seán Ó Gaora’s musical knowledge
Seán Ó Gaora was born in his grandfather’s house at Aill na Brón in 1902 and learned much of his song repertoire from him. He played the fiddle and later worked as a tailor. The Irish Traditional Music Archive records repeated visits by Séamus Ennis between 1942 and 1946, during which Ennis wrote down tunes and song texts. His account documents family transmission followed by systematic collecting. [3]
Peadar Ó Ceannabháin and publication
Sean-nós singer Peadar Ó Ceannabháin is also from Aill na Brón. His publishing biography records his editing of Éamon a Búrc: Scéalta in 1983 and his work as a university lecturer. He later co-edited Leabhar Mór na nAmhrán, a substantial collection of traditional Irish-language songs with notes on their backgrounds. His work links the locality’s oral traditions with scholarship and publication. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Galway
- Barony
- Ballynahinch
- Civil parish
- Moyrus
- Within
- Kilkieran
- Coordinates
- 53.30923, -9.73871 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1420283 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Aill na Brón. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Éamon a Búrc, 1866–1942 · Ask About Ireland, Folklore of Ireland
- Éamon Ó Donnchadha: Seán Ó Gaora · Irish Traditional Music Archive
- Leabhar Mór na nAmhrán: editors’ biographies · Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Publishing Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2023-03-13. How this page was prepared.