Focal an Lae: Cumha

Thursday, 22 October 2026

Cumha (KOO-ah) is the Irish for longing, homesickness.

The ache for a place or a person you are parted from. It is the word in the emigrant songs, and it carries more weight than homesickness does in English.

Other days

Baile, the day before · Sioc, 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.