Inis Fáil

Inis Fáil

The stone was originally called Fál, a word of obscure meaning; the Dictionary of the Irish Language distinguishes this word from five homonyms in Old Irish and Middle Irish, whose meanings cluster respectively around "barrier", "chieftain", "abundance", "learning", and "valley". It is from this stone the Tuatha Dé Danannmetonymically named Ireland Inis Fáil ("island of Fál"), and from this Fál became an ancient name for Ireland. The stone in turn by reverse metonymy was named Lia Fáil "[Standing] Stone of Ireland". Inisfail appears as a synonym for Erin in some Irish romantic and nationalist poetry in English in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; Aubrey Thomas de Vere's 1863 poem Inisfail is an example.