Forth (County Wexford barony)

Barony of Forth in County Wexford, Ireland

Forth (Irish: Fotharta[l 1]) (Yola: Forthe, or Vorth)[citation needed] is a barony in County Wexford in Ireland.[l 1]

Forth is bordered by Wexford Harbour to the north, St George's Channel to the east, the Celtic Sea to the south, and the baronies of Bargy to the west and Shelmaliere East to the northwest.[1] Settlements in the barony include [l 2] Wexford,[l 2] Rosslare,[l 2] Kilrane,[l 2] Broadway,[l 3] Ballycogly,[l 3] Killinick,[l 3] and Tagoat.[l 3] Other features include Lady's Island Lake and Carnsore Point.[2]

The Fotharta from whom the barony was named were a sept allied to the Uí Bairrche who ruled the Wexford region until the 8th century, when the Uí Ceinnselaig pushed them back to the southernmost part: the Fotharta to Forth and the Uí Bairrche to neighbouring Bargy.[3] Another group of Fotharta settled in the Carlow barony of Forth. Patrick Weston Joyce quotes from Lebor na Cert that the Fotharta were descendants of Eochaidh Finn Fothart, son of Fedlimid Rechtmar, a second-century High King of Ireland.[4] The Norman conquest of Ireland of the 1170s established a large English-speaking colony in Forth and Bargy, which survived throughout the late medieval Gaelic Resurgence.[2] The distinctive Forth and Bargy dialect of Middle English survived until the 19th century.[5][6]


Cite error: There are <ref group=l> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=l}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Joyce, P.W. (1897). "County Wexford". Philips' Handy Atlas of the Counties of Ireland. London: George Philips & Son. p. 301.
  2. ^ a b "Forth". The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland adapted to the new Poor-Law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical arrangements ... as existing in 1844–45. Vol. II: D–M. Dublin: A. Fullarton & Co. 1846. p. 221.
  3. ^ Furlong, Nicholas (2003). A History of County Wexford. Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 9780717165407. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  4. ^ Joyce, P.W. (1902). "Forth". Irish Local Names Explained. Dublin: Gill & Son. p. 48. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  5. ^ Mernagh, Michael (2008). "A Brief History of Languages in County Wexford: As we used to say". The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society. Dublin. The unique linguistic heritage of Yola declined steadily until by 1875 it was extinct
  6. ^ Colfer, Billy (2002). "Ethnic mix in Medieval Wexford". History Ireland. Vol. 10, no. 1. Retrieved 15 October 2024. a unique dialect known as Yola survived until the mid-nineteenth century