placenamesBofield
An Gort Crom
Bofield’s school and céilí bands made this small Mayo community a place of learning, music and cultural memory.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Gort Crom · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Bofield · English · main form
Place & story
Generations of music-making
Mayo Comhaltas traces Bofield’s first céilí band to the Loftus family in the 1930s. Schoolteacher James Brennan organised school bands during the 1950s, performing in competitions and recording for RTÉ. Peter Neary later helped revive the adult band, which won at the Mayo and Connacht fleadhanna in 1978. He was also central to the founding of the local Comhaltas branch in 1995. The sequence shows how teaching and organised groups carried music between generations. [2]
Recording a local tradition
In March 2000 the Bofield Céilí Band prepared to release its first album, 100 Years a-Growing, alongside a book about the area’s musical history. An Irish Times report records that the album had been made the previous year at the Old Monastery Hostel in Letterfrack, during a break in Sharon Shannon’s recording sessions there. RTÉ producer Peter Browne directed the recording. The project placed a local performance tradition on record through both sound and written history. [3]
Seán Ó Súilleabháin’s time at school
The folklorist Seán Ó Súilleabháin spent several months at Bofield in 1920–21, studying at Tadhg O’Leary’s preparatory school. James Reddiough’s account explains that O’Leary prepared students for the King’s Scholarship, a route towards teacher training. Classes took place in the evenings after the national school’s ordinary pupils had left, and visiting students lodged locally. Ó Súilleabháin’s attendance gives Bofield a precise educational connection with a major figure in Irish folklore collecting. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Mayo
- Barony
- Gallen
- Civil parish
- Kilgarvan
- Within
- Sallymount
- Within
- Carrowcastle
- Coordinates
- 54.09156, -9.06758
- Logainm ID
- 114158 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bofield. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Gort na mBó, Bofield: Branch History · Mayo Comhaltas
- A testament to Bofield’s tradition, 27 March 2000 · The Irish Times
- Famous Irish folklorist’s unique link to Mayo, 30 June 2024 · James Reddiough, Western People
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-07-01. How this page was prepared.