Bleary | village, townland

 village, townland

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(Bladhraigh)
Bleary like Ballydugan appears in 1611 as the name of a subdivision (hamlet) of a townland in Clanconnell and later takes over from the original townland name. The earliest anglicized spelling which clearly refers to this location is Blyery (1611) but from the late 17th century the spelling Bleery or Bleary becomes standard. Pronunciations collected in the 19th century such as Blary, and Blairey indicate -e- not -ee- as the earlier vowel sound of the first syllable here. Myles' anonymous pamphlet on the history of Tullylish first suggested the population name Bladraige, one of the scattered aithechthuatha or 'subject tribes'. References to the tribe put them on the north-east coast of Co. Antrim: 'Bladraige in the territory of Dál Riada descend from Bladchú of the Britons of Man' (c.1397). However the name may also be connected with the character called Blai Briugad 'Blai the hospitaller' in the Ulster cycle tales. He kept a bruiden or house of hospitality somewhere in Ulster (SMMD I $1n, CMR II 52), but the only time his dwelling is located it is at Tara at the tip of the Ards peninsula (Mesca Ulad l.714; PNI ii 131-2). Séamas Ó Ceallaigh noted that there was a tribe in Co. Derry called Tuath Rois Blai and a mountain Blaishliabh, possibly connected with Bladraige or Blai Briugad, and that Dál Riada may have once extended further to the west over the Bann (GUH 42n). A fort called Carraig Bladraide appears in three lists of the buildings erected in Ireland in the time of the legendary invader Éremón, said to be 'in the north-east of Ireland' or at Murbolg on the north coast (L. Gabála v 166 $483, 170 $487). O'Donovan in discussing the fort of Carraig Bladraide said the only similar modern place-name was Blyry in Westmeath (AFM i 28), and Hogan accepted Blyry as its location (s.v. Blarach). In the Field Name Book, however, Blyry was given the Gaelic form Bladhraidh and translated as 'flowery land' (Walsh 1957, 112). The only historical form calls Blyry 'half a cartron called the Bloyery' and Bleary in Tullylish is occasionally called The Bleary. Since Bleary too was originally a subdivision name, the Irish form could be from blogh fem. variant bladh 'portion' (DIL, Dinneen) with suffix -raigh, i.e. 'portion place'