Anyone from Ireland ?
I'm an American and my last name is O'Brien. My aunt is doing my family tree and it turns out our ancestors were from Drogheda, Ireland.
Can any Irish natives tell me how to pronounce "Drogheda" ?
My guess is something like "Drow-ee-tha"
Thanks in advance !
I've got some good friends near Drogheda and have visited the place, but I wanted to double-check that the way I pronounced it was actually valid: http://forvo.com/word/drogheda/#en
It makes a lot more sense if you look at the original Gaelic name for the town: "Droichead Átha". "Droichead" is a bridge, and "áth" is a ford ("átha" means of the ford). The pronunciation is the same as what you hear on Forvo. "Drogheda" is just the anglicised name, and like many anglicisms of Irish place names, it's pretty poor.