It is the site of the original 'Ballroom of Romance', which inspired a short story by William Trevor that was subsequently turned into a television film in a BBC/RTÉ co-production.

The name of the village is an anglicisation of Gleann-fearna, meaning "valley of the alders".

[6] The Rainbow Ballroom of Romance lies at a crossroads in the townland of Brockagh Lower along the N16 Blacklion to Sligo road.

Opened as McGivern's Dance Hall in 1934 by John McGivern, a Brockagh-born returnee from the United States, it was renovated and renamed the Rainbow Ballroom of Romance in 1952 and during the showband era of the 1950s and 1960s attracted big names in the genre.

[7] When driving through Glenfarne in the early 1970s, the writer William Trevor noticed it and was inspired to write his famous short story of emigration and narrow horizons, The Ballroom of Romance.