Gender
The adjectives supplied by Walker/Beauford in conjunction with 'fuaigheal' are 'mór' (big)
and 'beag' (small). In writing, these adjectives would be made to agree in gender with a
feminine noun by putting an H after the first consonant.
In Walker's footnote however, only 'bheag' agrees with the feminine. The fact that either
Walker or Beauford have gone to the trouble to insert an H on the latter occasion might
seem to imply that a feminine gender for the word is intended and that the lack of H in
'mór' is a lapse. If these terms came from an ancient text, the lenition of the M in 'mór'
may originally have been represented by a dot over the M. Such a feature would not
have been available in the typeface used for the footnote and may even have been
passed over by either Beauford or Walker.
It may be particularly relevant here that 'uan fuaighel' should show an H after the F for
grammatical reasons in Walker but doesn't. This lack of either an H or a dot is replicated
by Bunting in every case.
If the word is to be regarded as feminine, then the only interpretations available for this
word from the options presented here would be 'fuáil' (sewing) and feminine 'fuíoll'
(sound). Walker's footnote appears to indicate the former and p28 of Bunting's 1840
Introduction appears to indicate the latter.
In Ireland today, the word 'fuáil' is feminine in gender but is masculine In Scotland. The
Dictionary of the Irish Language gives ancient 'fúaigél' as masculine and ancient 'úaigél'
as feminine. It is possible that the term was correctly regarded as masculine by Bunting's
sources in their part of Ireland.
If the word were to be taken as masculine, then the options of 'fuáil' (sewing) and
masculine 'fuíoll' (remnant/outcome) would become available.