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📖 Ancient Restoration County Longford gets its name from 'An Longphort', which means 'Viking stronghold'. However the Vikings never settled the county - Rather the name refers to Norse-style forts built up by the Irish on the River Shannon.
County Offaly is named after the Gaelic kingdom of Uí Failghe, which existed from 500 AD up until the Tudor plantations. Failghe, its first king, was a contemporary of St Patrick, ‘whom the saint blessed and from whom the rulers of Offaly descend.’