Stephen Fry gets a lesson on Castletown Geoghegan
Actor Stephen Fry may not have heard of Castletown Geoghegan up to last week – but as of now, he definitely knows how to pronounce it!
“Gay-gan”, “Gay-gun”, were the main suggestions that flowed to him across the twittersphere after he tweeted to his 5.5m Twitter followers on Friday that he didn’t know how to pronounce the surname “Geogheghan” (sic).
“Excuse my ignorance on the matter, but just seen it on a brass plaque. Irish I assume?” he tweeted.
Immediately, the tweets started flowing in.
His first piece of guidance came from Irish PhD student, Aislinn O’Connell in London, who tweeted back: “gay-gen. At least, that’s what the last Geoghegan I knew was.”
Cricket fan, Eddy Hogg from Peterborough advised: “When Exodus Geoghegan played for Posh, ‘gay-gun’ was the accepted pronunciation I think.”
The UK firm RemovalGuru directed Fry to the Wikipedia site giving the history of the illustrious Geoghegan clan, as did Fry’s Norwegian fan, Sven-Erik Andersen.
Journalist Nick Heath carried on the lesson: “Simon Geoghegan was the Irish winger Bill McLaren referred to as ‘like a mad octopus when he gets going’. Gay-gen – hard G’s.” Somewhat less accurate advice came in from an NHS account stating that they believed it rhymed with “vegan”, but Dara O’Briain stated authoritatively, “Very Irish ‘Gay-gan’ is a good pronunciation...”, going on later to add: “And just to be helpful the name ‘Keoghan’ which looks similar, is actually pronounced Kyo-han”.
Then the advice started coming from the Geoghegans themselves: “It’s basically ‘gay-gun’. Yep, it’s Irish, many from Castletown Geoghegan in W Meath!” tweeted Peter Geoghegan, editor of Political Insight magazine, while London marketing consultant Nick Geoghegan extended thanks to Dara O’Briain for his phonetic version, stating: “thanks for the help from all us Geoghegan’s. Nightmare of a name”.
Frances Williams, an ex-Geoghegan, assured Fry it was an Irish name: “yes it’s Irish! I was Geoghegan for28yrs until Dec when became Williams. Pronounced ‘GeeGun’or ‘Gaygun’ by some people!”
Joe Cullinan also had an authoritative basis for his advice: “‘gaygen.’ Hard G’s. My mam is from Castletown Geoghegan in County Westmeath. Rustic. No mobile reception. Drives me nuts.”
No doubt Fry was delighted to learn from Sean Geoghegan from Dublin that, “it’s english for MacEochagain, the G is Mac G-eoghegan = MacEoghegan, i should know :)”
Another who has good reason to know how it’s pronounced is Dónall Geoghegan, a management and public affairs consultant from Dublin: “Believe it or not it’s ‘Gay-gan’. As in ‘pagan’ starting with a ‘g’. I was called ‘Geoghegan the pagan’ as a child”.
TV producer Lorraine Geoghegan let the actor know he wasn’t dealing with nobodys: “‘Gay-gan’ as in Castletown Geoghegan, Co Westmeath, Ireland. We were kings once you know. (Once)” she tweeted.
Another Geoghegan tweeter wished he wasn’t a Geoghegan: “no one can spell it let alone say it... I hate my name :)”, he moaned.
Another tweeter was, however, proud of his heritage. Tideswellman, from England’s Peak District, wrote: “Great tweet. I Am, by birth a Geoghegan. Only found out 12 yrs ago, descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages”.
John Geoghegan revealed what ticked him off: “hat it when people pronounce it Gee gun, as in Indian cooking”, he said, adding that Fry had added an extra “h” to the spelling: “please don’t tell me there is a longer version”, he added.
Even we at the Westmeath Examiner got in on the act, telling Fry that Sinead O’Connor’s recent video was filmed in Castletown Geoghegan, and inviting him over for The Gathering.
While he didn’t respond to the invitation to follow in Sinead’s footsteps, Fry was delighted with the response he received from all those telling him how to pronounced Geoghegan: “Great answers to my Geogheghan ignorance. It’s pronounced “gay-gan”, rhyming with Ray gun. The last vowel being that lovely thing a schwa,” he concluded.