Cobh / An Cobh: from 1849 until 1922 was known as
Queenstown in honour of Queen Victoria.
Dún Laoghaire: the anglicized spelling Dunleary was
used prior to 1821, when the name of the harbour and its surrounding
settlement was changed to Kingstown in honour of King George IV.
The former name persisted for a time as the name of the neighbouring
village, and is recorded as being the name of a station on the Dublin
and Kingstown Railway in 1834. Later, the two communities merged under
the name of Kingstown. In 1921, the original name was restored, but with
the Gaelic spelling which is now used exclusively.
Londonderry / Doire: the town of Derry had the prefix
“London-” added in the early 17th century to mark its close commercial
connections with the capital of England. This remains the name that is
used today for the majority of official purposes, but the variant
Derry is commonly used. The “London-” prefix is never
used with the Gaelic spelling. The branding Derry~Londonderry
was used in publicity for the 2013 UK City of Culture and has since
appeared in other contexts. In 2019 it was adopted as the name of
the railway station for timetable and information purposes, but not
for the station signage.
Portlaoise: a fort was established in the late 1540s in
an area of Leix (Laois) recorded from the previous century as Port
Laoighisi. The fort was named Fort Protector, although usually known as
Fort of Leix, or Fort Leix. A small town grew up around the fort;
the town was granted a charter in 1567 and given the name
Maryborough in honour of Queen Mary I. Maryborough railway
station opened in 1847. In 1929, shortly after the creation of the
Irish Free State, the town changed its name to Portlaoighise.
From the 1930s, the railway station carried a bilingual sign with
the Gaelic version reading
PORT LAOIĠISE
(modern orthography: Port Laoighise, two words), while the English
version read PORTLAOISE. This simplified spelling would later be
adopted in both languages. However, the station continued to be
known by the name of Maryborough in railway working timetables until
at least the early 1950s. The Church of Ireland parish covering the
town remains known as Maryborough to the present day.
