Madam, – Michael Drury (January 29th) advances two extraordinarily far-fetched explanations of the first name of Barack Obama’s Offaly ancestor Fulmouth Kearney: corruptions of Cornish Falmouth or “foul-mouth” (“feall-bhéal”).
More likely is that the name is an oral mis-spelling of the townland of Fulmort, between Ballinalack and Multyfarnam in Co Westmeath. Fr Walsh, in his seminal Place Names of Westmeath, cannot explain the origin of this name.
The implications of this perhaps are that President Obama’s Irish ancestry includes Westmeath as well as Offaly elements. – Yours, etc,