County Nick Names

[Shamrock Shore]

Tayto

Billy is horrid passionate about these things, as am I. It's like insulting our mothers.

You are young. You will learn.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Carlow's other name - The Raggae Boys!

[Croí na hÉireann]

Ara no Shane. I do recall that name from a time when I was a nipper a long time ago. It just didn't gell with those whose surname wasn't O'Farrell. Or Farrell which is moe common nowadays in Longford.

So the Shores, Boots, Eyes, Ordians don't really salute that flag. Or the other 99% of the county

We're happy the way we are. No real official nickname, no real offical purpose, no real offical point.

We stil have more National League titles than Westmeath though.

Jeez, the way you lads go on you'd swear we were evenly matched rivals... 

[Lecale2]

I thought Mayo were the Airport county.

[Mayo4Sam]

Mayo's name is the "Yew County".........as in Maigh Eo - Plain of the Yews............Have never heard of us being called  the "Maritime" or the "Heather" county.......I would also be extremely dubious that the word Culchie comes from Kiltimagh........

Mayo are the Yew County alright

[Billys Boots]

you'd swear we were evenly matched rivals

Well you might, being deluded.

Therefore there was little need for your countyman to get quite so shirty about it.

Apologies tayto, I thought you'd been listening to those gombeens to our east.

O'Farrell (and latterly Farrell) was (and is) a very common surname in North Longford, in the same way as Brady is in South Cavan, and O'Rourke is in North Leitrim, and O'Neill is in Tyrone.  I guess this may explain the provenance of the Contae Ui Fearghail moniker, though I'd have thought it was more historical than football related.  I thought we'd a poll to decide this in the not too distant past, and had settled on The 'On the way to Places' County, or maybe The 'Where the F*ck is that' County or The 'Is that a county?' County.

[Lar Naparka]

Mayo's name is the "Yew County".........as in Maigh Eo - Plain of the Yews............Have never heard of us being called  the "Maritime" or the "Heather" county.......I would also be extremely dubious that the word Culchie comes from Kiltimagh........

I have heard Mayo being referred to as the Moysiders and also as the Davitt County. Both terms were used extensively by the likes of Terry Reilly and others who wrote match reports in the Western People and the Connaught Telegraph in years gone by.
I would also be extremely dubious about the term "Culchie" deriving from the natives of Kiltimagh; it was supposed to have been coined in the period following the last World War when  British building sites were full of emigrants from the west of Ireland - for one thing the word was in common usage long before then!
More scholarly research says that the term is a corruption of the Irish words, "Cúl Tí", meaning the rear of the house and was applied to all rural people, who referred to going Cúl Tí when they wanted to answer a call of nature!

[lawnseed 2]

as an armagh man i hate the name orchard, mostly because of the dumb and dumber newspaper headlines that  follow the team in newsprint land  eg orchard ripe, orchard raided, orchard blooming, orchard pipped etc..   personally id rather an orange tag orangemen men march on, the futures bright...  etc.  this is particularly poiniant sice according to recent surveys there are more apples produced in the south east waterford and wexford areas than in armagh where alot of the growers have become importers of apples from places like south america.  however i remember being in the paragon bar in 99 before an ulster final when some down "fans" began chanting you can stick your effing apples up your a-- . last time i heard apples mentioned at actual match

[ONeill]

I thought Armagh were red.

[lawnseed 2]

i know they'll get there eventually, do you think its o'neills or are they doing it themselves, you know how joe and mccloskey are big into the science bit, i read somewhere before that teams playing in red are 65% more likely to win than teams in blue and even more likely to win than teams in lighter or mixed colours,

[Hardy]

Lar - I've always assumed, but I'm not sure why, that 'culchie' derived somehow from 'agriculture' - maybe students of agricultural engineering being so dubbed by their supposedly more urbane fellows, or the like. I'd agree with you about Kiltimagh, but never heard the 'cúl tí' theory before.

Maybe we should ask that lad who does the etymology spot on Moncrieff's programme on Newstalk.

[tayto]

Therefore there was little need for your countyman to get quite so shirty about it.

Apologies tayto, I thought you'd been listening to those gombeens to our east.

O'Farrell (and latterly Farrell) was (and is) a very common surname in North Longford, in the same way as Brady is in South Cavan, and O'Rourke is in North Leitrim, and O'Neill is in Tyrone.  I guess this may explain the provenance of the Contae Ui Fearghail moniker, though I'd have thought it was more historical than football related.  I thought we'd a poll to decide this in the not too distant past, and had settled on The 'On the way to Places' County, or maybe The 'Where the F*ck is that' County or The 'Is that a county?' County.

No Worries BB. Never heard the O'Farrell nickname before.

[Lar Naparka]

"Maybe we should ask that lad who does the etymology spot on Moncrieff's programme on Newstalk"


That's a sound suggestion, Hardy.
Terry Dolan is the guy in question and he is on on Mondays between 3pm and 3.30. Going by details on the website, listeners can text in to him and he will do his best to oblige.
Texting is not one of my stronger points, too many mistakes, too much bad language, so I'll chance sending Moncrieff an email as well before next Monday.

[Mayo4Sam]

I've heard of the Agriculture theory as well but never the Cúl tí theory

[Billys Boots]

My Da, being a Connemaraman used to refer to Mayo-folk as Culchies, he once explained to me (right or not) that he heard it came from the building sites in Yorkshire where the Cunnies (from Connemara, residing in Huddersfield) would meet up for a row with the Culchies (from East Mayo, Kiltimagh??) occasionally.  Not saying it's scientific research, just an oul yarn.