Joyce Country ( ga, Dúiche Sheoighe) is a cultural region in counties
Galway
Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
and
Mayo in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. It is sometimes called Partry, after the former tribal territory of the ''
Partraige'', which it largely matches.
Part of it falls within the Connacht
Gaeltacht
( , , ) are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home.
The ''Gaeltacht'' districts were first officially reco ...
. Joyce Country lies on the shores of
Lough Mask and
Lough Corrib
Lough Corrib ( ; ) is a lake in the west of Ireland. The River Corrib or Galway River connects the lake to the sea at Galway. It is the largest lake within the Republic of Ireland and the second largest on the island of Ireland (after Lough Nea ...
, and includes the
Partry Mountains. It is a rural area that includes small settlements such as
Clonbur,
Cong,
Cornamona and
Toormakeady. It borders
Connemara, to its south and west.
Joyce family
One of the first of the family ("Seoige" in Gaelic) recorded in Connacht was Thomas Joy, who established a minor
Hiberno-Norman
From the 12th century onwards, a group of Normans invaded and settled in Gaelic Ireland. These settlers later became known as Norman Irish or Hiberno-Normans. They originated mainly among Cambro-Norman families in Wales and Anglo-Normans fro ...
lordship in northern
Iar Connacht. His territory was the
barony Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
of Ross, contiguous to Killery Bay and extending from Cong river to the river. The Joyce family became completely
Gaelicised, ruled over their followers like the
Chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the bo ...
s of an
Irish clan
Irish clans are traditional kinship groups sharing a common surname and heritage and existing in a lineage-based society, originating prior to the 17th century. A clan (or ''fine'' in Irish) included the chief and his patrilineal relatives; howe ...
, and assimilated into the local
Gaelic culture
The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Goidelic languages, Gaelic languages: a branch o ...
.
Statistics
See also
County Galway
*
Galway City Gaeltacht
*
Gaeltacht Cois Fharraige
*
Conamara Theas
*
Aran Islands
County Donegal
*
Gaoith Dhobhair
*
Na Rosa
*
Cloch Cheann Fhaola
*
Gaeltacht an Láir
County Kerry
*
Gaeltacht Corca Dhuibhne
County Mayo
*
Gaeltacht Iorrais agus Acaill
County Sligo
*Referred to as ''
Yeats Country''
Books
* Hardiman, James, ''History of Galway'', 1820
* Gillespie and Moran, eds., ''Galway: History and Society'', Geography Publications, 1996.
* Martyn, Adrian, ''The Tribes of Galway:1124–1642'', Galway, 2016.
References
Geography of County Mayo
Geography of County Galway
{{Mayo-geo-stub