Focal an Lae: Baile

Wednesday, 21 October 2026

Baile (BAL-yeh) is the Irish for a town, a homestead.

The commonest word on the map of Ireland. Every Bally is a baile, and there are thousands of them: Ballymena, Ballybunion, Baile Átha Cliath itself.

What Irish place names really mean

Other days

Uisce beatha, the day before · Cumha, the day after

A new Irish word every morning, 386 of them in the round, with the feast days of the Irish year keeping their own. Today’s word. More in the phrases, the names and the place names.