placenamesBray
Bré
Mermaid’s programme brought local historical research into a public arts setting on Main Street.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Bré · Irish · main form · validated name
- Bray · English · main form
Place & story
A new cultural venue in 2002
Mermaid Arts Centre opened in 2002 on Main Street. Its own institutional account describes a venue for artists and audiences across County Wicklow, presenting cultural work and supporting professional and amateur activity. The centre added an arts venue to the heart of Bray, alongside the town’s older commercial and civic buildings. [2]
Josephine G Heffernan remembered
Mermaid’s November 2018 exhibition programme told the story of a bracelet found in a French garden in 2002. It bore Josephine G Heffernan’s name and American military nursing markings. The programme credited schoolteacher Estelle Lefeuvre and Bray Cualann Historical Society with helping trace her family over fifteen years. Heffernan had worked in Bray before training as a nurse in America. The recovered object connected her First World War service in France with a later effort to recover a local life story. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bray. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Mermaid Arts Centre: Assistant Technical Manager job description, 2019 · Mermaid Arts Centre
- Josephine Heffernan: exhibition programme, 9–18 November 2018 · Mermaid Arts Centre; programme credits Bray Cualann Historical Society’s research
- Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Seafront bandstand at Bray, County Wicklow illustration: based on a Bandstand, Bray by Rossographer. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-22. How this page was prepared.