Offaly takes its name from Uíbh Fhailí, the territory of the descendants of Failghe — a county of quiet bogland that once held one of the great centres of learning in early Christian Europe.
Contae Uíbh Fhailí · The Faithful County · Leinster
Offaly takes its name from Uíbh Fhailí, the territory of the descendants of Failghe — a county of quiet bogland that once held one of the great centres of learning in early Christian Europe.
This is Clonmacnoise, founded by St Ciarán on the banks of the Shannon in 544, where kings and scholars came to be educated and, in death, to be buried among its ruined churches and high crosses.
