On a warm summer’s evening that might have been specially created for a long rural walk, a group gathered in the shady confines of Charlie Byrne’s Bookstore to help launch a new book that is packed with the story and heritage of some of the most historic routes in our neighbouring county.

Galway University graduate and Westport native John O’Callaghan has a lifelong passion for his native place and, now retired after a long career in the pharmaceutical industry, he has devoted his time and attention to the world on his own doorstep.

The end result is West Mayo Placenames – Origin and Meaning, which has already gone down a storm in the area from which the book draws its title. But it clearly has an enthusiastic following in Galway as well.

John has left no stone unturned as he offers a forensic insight into the story behind the names of some of West Mayo’s most famous, and not so famous, townlands and places.

Mayo has eight Baronies, and this covers three of them – the old Baronies of Murrisk, Burrishoole and Erris – delving into the origin and meanings of their placenames.

Publisher and fellow Mayo advocate, broadcaster Liamy McNally, summed up the book, written by his former classmate and lifelong friend, at its Mayo launch in their native Westport; he said it was outdoor and in depth.

It offers the reader the chance to dipped in and out of as the mood takes them – and also brought on car journeys or cycles or walks, so that you don’t just see the land around you…you get an insight into the story, the heritage, and the history of the place.

John O’Callaghan manages to walk the thin line between a forensic level of research on one hand – but, then on the other, putting that on paper the easy, user-friendly way it is written so that all can understand and appreciate these stories of the smallest of places.

West Mayo Placenames (Logainmneacha Mhaigh Eo) – Origin and Meaning by John O’Callaghan is available in all good bookshops now.

Pictured: Connacht Tribune editor Dave O’Connell speaks at the launch of ‘West Mayo Placenames – Origin and Meaning’, by John O’Callaghan in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop.