☘️☘️Faugh-a-Ballagh ☘️☘️
The war cry of the Irish Brigade, “Faugh a ballagh” is an 18th century anglicization (corruption) of an Irish phrase. The phrase in Irish is “Fág an bealach”. (Sometimes as “fág a bealach”).
The first recorded use of “Faugh-a-Ballagh” as a regimental motto was by the British Army’s 87th (Prince of Wales’s Irish) Regiment of Foot (who later became the Royal Irish Fusiliers) in 1798. It remains the motto of the UK’s Royal Irish Regiment today. (It is recorded as being shouted by the men of the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Regiment, later The Royal Irish Fusiliers, as they charged the French at the Battle of Barrosa on 5 March 1811. The 87th was apparently known as the “Faugh-a-ballagh boys’ and the “old Faughs.”)
From its inception, the 28th Massachusetts was known as the “Fág an Bealach” Regiment. (Reference, Pilot, Boston, MA. Volume 25, Number 3, 18 January 1862. LINK.
The literal translation of “Fág an bealach” is as follows:
Fág means “Leave”
An means “the”
Bealach means “Way” as in a road or track, or a route
Phonetic pronunciation
Munster pronunciation: “Fawg on bal-ukh”
(Ulster pronunciation: “ fwack on ballah”
“Faugh-a-ballagh” (in English) seems to mix the Munster and Ulster pronunciations — “fawg on ballah”