The Church of Ireland Gazette 1906 p 28
According to a poem by Mac Liag, the Secretary of Brian Boru (Trans. Os. Soc. v. 287) the old name of Kinvarra in County of Galway was Rinn Beara, or Ceann Beara, from Beara, a chief of the Firbolgs, who also flourished in Cloudland.
O’Curry, however (Lectures, pp. 292, 303) quoting from old tales, and Joyce (Irish Names i., 523) give Ceann Mara as the Irish form of Kinvarra. O’Reilly (Irish Dictionary) has sea as one of the meanings of Bar, and it appears to me that Beara, Bear, Ber, Bior, Bir are forms of Bar. to which also may be referred the renowned Bheurtha (Vera). This word Bar, meaning water or well, occurs in Tobar, a well, i.e. Do-Bar, and in Tiobraid, a well, an extended form of Tobar,which is preserved in the name of Tipperary, or “Well of Ara.” Mara (old Mora) is the genitive case of Muir, and Muir is from old Irish More, cognate with Latin Mare, Norse Marr. Anglo-Saxon and English Mere (cf. Merman and Mermaid), Welsh Mor, Gaulish Mori, Gothic Marei (from Mar),German Meet, and Sanskrit Mira.
J.F. Lynch
The Burren and Beyond 