Hi,

I hope someone could give me a good translation for the townland I live in, outside Goleen, West Cork: Colleras Oughter.

Also if someone could translate "Blow-In" as in someone who lives in the area but isn't originally from it.

Thanks
Aidan

The Irish is Callraí Uachtarach (Calleros Oughter is the English spelling on logainm.ie. And the townland next door is Callraí Íochtarach (Calleros Eighter).

Callraí is pronounced with an epenthetic vowel, calaraí.
Uachtarach: the ch is pronounced gutturally like the ch in the German name Bach (and like the gh in Lough Ness in Scotland).

Joyce's famous work on Irish placenames, Vol 1, p 126, mentions the large number of Irish placenames like Calry, Calary, etc, basically from Calraidhe, "the race of Cal", descendants of someone called Cal in the 3rd century AD. Is Callraí Uachtarach one of these placenames? Maybe.

There are also Irish placenames where Cala means water-meadow. Basically, you'd have to consult a local ethnographer to find out the real derivation, or maybe Seanachas Ó gCairbre has something on this?

Blow-in in focloir.ie:

strainséir masc duine as baile isteach (EDIT masc means masculine and is not part of the phrase)
he was no blow-in to Cork níorbh aon strainséir é i gCorcaigh
the blow-in population has grown tá níos mó daoine as baile isteach ina gcónaí san áit

I believe strainséir is stróinséir in Cork Irish.

Thank you DJWebb for answering the questions posed and a few observations:

In terms of Calleros/Colleras/Callaros, they are all used; the latter two by Ordnance Survey Ireland who mapped this area in 1840 and did their best to anglicise the Irish names given to them by the Irish speaking inhabitants. Locally it is pronounced more as Colleras, for what that is worth.