Uí Failge
Offaly · the descendants of Failge
Uí Failge, in English Offaly, said ee FAL-yeh. A kingdom.
The Offaly midlands. Bog and water made it hard to take, and it stayed Gaelic longer than its neighbours for that reason.
The name
the descendants of Failge
Where
Offaly and the western edge of Kildare, the bog country of the midlands.
In today's counties: Offaly (Uíbh Fhailí), Kildare (Cill Dara), Laois (Laois).
When it mattered
A Leinster kingdom that held out against the midlands powers well into the sixteenth century.
Uí Failge was Leinster's western march, facing the southern Uí Néill across the bogs. The terrain did most of the defending: an army that wants to cross the Bog of Allen in anything but a hard frost will not be an army for long.
The Ó Conchobhair Failghe, the O'Connor Faly, held it until the Tudors. In 1556 it was shired and planted as King's County, named for Philip of Spain, husband of Mary. It got its old name back in 1920.
What is left of the name
County Offaly, which is the kingdom's name returned to the map after three hundred and sixty years as King's County.
Names out of it
Families on this site that belong to Offaly. A surname is not a pedigree, and plenty of people carry these names for reasons that have nothing to do with the old kingdom.