Date: 02/09/2024

It is at this time of year (and it is salient to note that the Irish name of September means “middle of the harvest season”) that many turn their attention to the abundance of blackberries which the Irish countryside will bestow over the next two months. All you need to benefit from this bounty is a bucket and the time to spare — and also to be prepared to be endlessly ‘scrawbed’ (Wexford English for “scratched”) by thorns.
One of the few townland names that refers to the sméar “(black)berry” in its original Irish form is Mullaunnasmear/Mullán na Sméar (logainm.ie #52671) near Bunclody in County Wexford, which might at first sight be translated as “the hillock of the blackberries”. However, as we know that the word mullán appears to have developed the further meaning of “green field, lea-field” in placenames of the Southeast, Mullán na Sméar is in this instance probably better translated as “the green field, lea-field of the (black)berries” (see Logainmneacha na hÉireann IV: Townland Names of Co. Wexford, p. 1355). In Munster we have Aghsmear/Áth na Sméar “the ford of the (black)berries” (logainm.ie #46828) and Cappanasmear/Ceapach na Sméar “the plot of the (black)berries” (logainm.ie #46104) in County Tipperary; and Coolnasmear/Cúil na Sméar “the corner, recess of the (black)berries” (logainm.ie #49308; #49309; #49310) in County Waterford.
For fear that anyone might think that blackberries are associated with the south of the country, we must also mention Creenasmear/Críoch na Sméar “the territory of the (black)berries” (logainm.ie #14331) in County Donegal. And we find that in 1834, local Irish speakers called Tullyrossmearan in County Fermanagh ‘Tulaigh Ras Smeurthan’, explained as “hill of the shrubbery of the blackberries” — leading the Placenames Commission to recommend the official Irish form Tulaigh Ros Sméarann “mound, hillock of the wood (or elevated ground) of (the) (black)berries” (logainm.ie #130663) in Ainmneacha Gaeilge na mBailte Poist (1969), after having submitted the name for public consultation on the provisional list of 1962. Although the standard plural of sméar nowadays is sméara, gen. pl. sméar, note that an alternate form ‘smeranna drisi’ is found in a 15th century manuscript, showing inflexion as an n-stem noun — this would produce gen. pl. sméarann as found in the placename (eDIL s.v. 1 smér). (A variant of smér in Old Irish was mér, and that was regularly inflected as an n-stem (eDIL s.v. 2 mér).) It has been suggested that the final element is actually the Irish personal name Méarán (see placenamesni.org). However, the local pronunciation /ˈtoliːrɑ ˈsmeːrən/ seems more in keeping with both the official form Tulaigh Ros Sméarann recommended in 1969 and the local form recorded in 1834.
P.W. Joyce draws our attention to another Ulster example, Drumnasmear (logainm.ie #62416) in County Antrim, which is from Droim na Sméar “the ridge of the (black)berries” (in which we see the more usual genitive plural form sméar), as suggested on placenamesni.org (placenamesni.org). But Joyce appears to be mistaken in explaining the placename Smear/Sméar (logainm.ie #32836) in County Longford as ‘signifying a place producing blackberries’ (The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, vol. II, p. 325). Simplex names of this type, simply stating ‘blackberry, apple, or sloe’ — unlike the names of certain trees and shrubs — are not typical of townland names in Irish, so this is hardly correct. Some doubt therefore remains as to the true meaning of Smear/Sméar.
Even though, as research stands, there seem to be few other townland names that refer to the sméar “blackberry”, there is no doubt that the blackberry was an important part of the diet of the Gaelic Irish, as were many of our other wild fruits and berries (see Fergus Kelly, Early Irish Farming, p. 306). Indeed, as it is likely that they were cultivated to a degree, due to their importance in the early Irish diet, perhaps ‘wild’ is not entirely the correct word to use. This ‘cultivation’ may well only have extended to leaving briars thrive in certain areas, but nevertheless reference to the plant on which the blackberry grows dris “briar” — and to its myriad derivatives — are extremely common throughout the country, as we will see in next week’s contribution.

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

• Críoch na Sméar/Creenasmear
• Sméar/Smear
• Ceapach na Sméar/Cappanasmear
• Áth na Sméar/Aghsmear
• Cúil na Sméar Íochtarach/Coolnasmear Lower
• Cúil na Sméar Uachtarach/Coolnasmear Upper
• Sliabh Chúil na Sméar/Coolnasmearmountain
• Mullán na Sméar/Mullaunnasmear
• /Drumnasmear
• Tulaigh Ros Sméarann/Tullyrossmearan

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