Connacht rhymes with "sonnet", and the "ch" sounds like the "ch" in "Loch". The old Gaelic name, Connachta, means Conn's land (Conn of the Hundred Battles). Conn was once a High King of Ireland and his kingdom of Connacht extended from the western sea to the eastern.

Ireland has four provinces. Connacht is the lake speckled, western province. It has five counties: Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo. Connacht is located between the Atlantic Ocean & the River Shannon. It has geological variety: mountains, lakes, rivers, a rugged coastline and remote islands. The "Irishness" of Connacht hasn't faded to the same extent as elsewhere in Ireland. Gaelic is still spoken in parts of Connemara, and on many of the offshore islands. Western Ireland is known for its folklore.

The Fian was founded durning Conn's reign about 3 AD. The Fian were soldiers in times of war and a national police in times of peace. The Fianna (bodies of the Fian) were recruited at great fairs, especially at Tara. Later the term Fenian was used in reference to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, whose purpose was to make Ireland an independent democratic Republic.

Among Conn's descendants were Fionn MacCumail (Finn MacCool) and Neill of the Nine Hostages. Fionn's father, Cumal, was chief of the Fian. Neill was progenitor of a long line of Connacht kings who were also High Kings of Ireland, a line known as the Ui Neill or O'Neills. Note: The Gaelic prefixes Ua and Ui (male and female descendants of) later became O {grandson of). In later genealogies, Mc was used (son of), which then lead to the usage of Mac.

Connacht wasn't confiscated following the wars of the 17th century because of its poor land and remoteness. In 1653, Parliament issued the order to transplant those who were still alive in Ulster, Leinster and Munster to the barren bogs of Connacht. Leitrim was reserved for raising money to pay off areas of the English military. About 2000 Catholic landowners and their families were transplanted to the "reservation west of the River Shannon" (Roscommon, Mayo, Galway, and Clare). Cromwell gave the Irish a choice of going to hell or to Connacht. On penalty of death, no Irish man, woman, or child, was to be found east of the River Shannon, after 1 May 1654. Most of the Irish who were able to bear arms had been killed off.

Some were shipped into slavery to the American colonies and the West Indies. On some of the smaller islands of the West Indies, until about a century ago, the negroes still spoke Gaelic. By 1778, Catholics owned only 5% of Irish land, and could no longer practice law, run for office, purchase land, or own property worth more than five pounds. Connacht became a refuge for dispossessed Irish, densely populated, and desperately poor. The Catholic education system was outlawed and church services and education were forced underground. Connacht suffered disproportionately in the famine and mass emigration that followed. The fertile fields of the native Irish were declared to be the property of the soldiers who had won them. Derry was renamed Londonderry when it was heavily planted with Englishmen.

A fungus hit Ireland's potato fields from 1845-1849. In desperation, people ate dogs, cats, seaweed, grass. Fever was rampant in the workhouses, which became centers of famine relief. 1847 was one of the severest winters and the sick & frail poor people fell dead by the road sides. Many small farmers and tenants chose between giving up their land or starving. During the famine years, one and a half million people left the country; more than the previous 200 years.

In summary, from Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest", we know the surviving Irish from Connacht are very robust people.