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Briars, cranks and Strawberryhill

Lisnadrish/Lios na Drise (logainm.ie #19957)

Date: 09/09/2024

Building on last week’s theme of the sméar “(black)berry” in townland names, it is particularly interesting to note how often we find derivatives of dris “briar”, the name of the bush on which blackberries grow. In fact, they are way too numerous to outline here, so we shall have to confine ourselves to brief samples thereof.
Firstly, in comparison with its many derivatives, the word dris “briar, bramble” is itself relatively rare in townland names. It appears to occur in the forerunner to anglicized Carrowndrisha (logainm.ie #44253) in County Roscommon, which John O’Donovan, famous toponymist of the Ordnance Survey, considered to be from ‘Ceathramhadh na drise’ [Ceathrú na Drise] “the quarter of the brambles” — further research is required to confirm this. However, it is certainly found in Lisnadrisha/Lios na Drise “the ring-fort of the briar” (logainm.ie #19957) in County Galway.
A variant of dris “briar” in unpalatalized -s, namely dreas, occurs a number of townland names such as Ardrass/Ard Dreas “height of (the) briars” (logainm.ie #25298; #25299) in County Kildare; Kiltrassy/Cill Dreasa “church of (the) briar” (logainm.ie #26301) in County Kilkenny; Kildress/Cill Dreas “church of (the) briars” (logainm.ie #64346; see also placenamesni.org) in County Tyrone; Cooldross/Cúil Dreas “corner, recess of (the) briars” (logainm.ie #55546) in County Wicklow; and Gortnadrass/Gort na Dreasa “the field of the briar” (logainm.ie #45594) in County Sligo. (It may be noted in passing that the definite article is only found in the last example, possibly implying that the other names are a lot older.) A derivative of dreas is found in the place name Dreastarnach, itself is a variant of dreasarnach “briary place” (FGB s.v. dreasarnach), which is the forerunner to anglicized Dresternagh (logainm.ie #4911) in County Cavan. A slightly different derivative is also behind Dristernaun and Dristernan (logainm.ie #29207; #29230) in County Leitrim, namely Dreastarnán “briary place”, also found with palatalized -s- as Dristernan/Dristearnán “briary place” (logainm.ie #15212) in County Donegal.
In fact the variety of suffixes found with the root word dris in placenames is quite impressive. One commonly-heard derivative of dris is driseog. The suffix -óg/-eog usually signifies a diminutive (“little X”), but it can also have a collective meaning in placenames (“place abounding in X”). Therefore driseog can refer either to a particular briar or briars, as in Ballynadrishoge/Baile na nDriseog “the town(land) of the briars” (logainm.ie #52228) in County Wexford, or to an area in which these bushes grew, as in Driseog “place abounding in briars”, which is the forerunner to anglicized Drisoge in County Carlow (logainm.ie #3144); Drissoge in County Meath (logainm.ie #39163); and Drishoge in Counties Dublin (logainm.ie #16741; #57137), Leitrim (logainm.ie #29229) and Tipperary (logainm.ie #48318).
We also have Knockdrislagh/Cnoc Drisleach “hill of the briars” in Cork (logainm.ie #11837) which contains the derivative drisleach, a collective noun meaning “brambles, briars” (FGB s.v. drisleach). A similar derivative is found in Dresnagh/Drisneach “briary (place)” (logainm.ie #16588) in County Donegal and in the well-disguised Bohernagrisna, a corruption of Buaile na nDrisneach “the cattle-fold, summer pasture of the briary places” (logainm.ie #41951) in County Offaly. In County Mayo we have an adjectival form in Corradrishy/An Chorr Dhriseach “the briary round-hill” (logainm.ie #34164). Developing from this adjective driseach “briary” we have Driseachán “briary place”, which is the forerunner to townlands called Drishaghaun in Counties Galway (logainm.ie #20692), Mayo (logainm.ie #35225), and Roscommon (logainm.ie #42966) — the last example possibly with the definite article (An Driseachán). An Driseachán, with the article, is the official name of the village in County Galway known in English by the half-translation Brierfield (logainm.ie #1413455). Remarkably, derivatives of dris don’t stop with the examples above — we also have Driseán “place of briars” as a forerunner to Drishane in Counties Clare (logainm.ie #6900) and Tipperary (logainm.ie #48934), as well as three examples with the definite article in County Cork, i.e., An Driseán “the place of briars” (logainm.ie #566; #13045; #13437).

We should mention here some unusual examples in which placenames containing dris in Irish have been replaced by the names of other berries or fruits in English. Driseog (logainm.ie #41203) in County Offaly has the name Drishoge or Strawberryhill in English, and a townland in County Roscommon which in Irish appears to have been called Driseachán “briary place” (logainm.ie #44012) was given the English name Cherryfield or Drishagan! These appear to be coincidences, but research on the second name is as yet incomplete and there are many examples of very curious half-translations in the anglicized placenames in County Roscommon and adjoining areas.
Finally, in regard to placenames such as Lisnadrish/Lios na Drise “the ring-fort of the briar” in County Galway or Ballynadrishog/Baile na nDriseog “town(land) of the briars” in County Wexford, it is worth noting that the word dris and its derivative driseog not only refer to a briar, but they can also refer to a person with the characteristics of a briar, i.e. “a prickly or cantankerous person” — indeed the English word briar is still used in this sense in County Clare and other parts of Ireland, similar to the usage of cancrán in Irish. Therefore Lios na Drise might, at a stretch, be translated as “ring-fort of the cantankerous person”. Certainly the underlying Irish form of Ballydrisheen, namely Baile Dhrisín, seems to contain the nickname or personal name Drisín “a cantankerous person(?)” (cf. ‘Drisin mac Arga a quo Hui Drisin’ in Ó Corráin, ‘The families of Corcomroe’, North Munster Antiquarian Journal 17 (1975): 26), which would explain the lenition (séimhiú) of D- is reflected in early historical forms (logainm.ie #23712).

Of course the anglicized word drisheen (Ir. drisín) has a different meaning today, referring to the black pudding most associated with County Cork. Etymologically, that word is related to the meaning given in modern dictionaries under the Irish word driseachán — but we are quite sure that that is not what driseachán means in placenames!

(Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich & Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill)

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