Origin of the name
East Belfast developers often named streets after Ulster townlands. Tamery likely derives from Tamary (Ir. Teamhraigh), a townland in County Down between Rathfriland and Mayobridge. It is in hill country on the NW edge of the Mourne Mountains. The hill in the townland is surmounted by Tamary Cairns, which suggests that the place was of some ritual significance in antiquity. Tamery is recorded as a spelling variant for this place-name in 1829. Ir. Teamhraigh is an oblique form of Teamhair — which can also be anglicised as “Tara”, as in the renowned royal site in Co. Meath — meaning “height” or “place with a view,” and sometimes interpreted as “sanctuary.” This etymology explains the unusual name and links Tamery Street/Pass to wider Irish place‑name traditions.
On the etymology of the element teamhair and its distribution in Irish place-names, see the contributions to The Kingship and Landscape of Tara (ed. Edel Bhreathnach, Dublin, 2005) by Dónall Mac Giolla Easpaig ('Significance and Etymology of the Placename Temair', 423-48) and Nollaig Ó Muraíle ('Temair/Tara and Other Places of the Name', 449-477).
Tamery Pass is a derivative of the earlier Tamery Street.
Location: Off Beersbridge Road, Ballymacarrett, East Belfast.
Historical development:
The name Tamery Street appears in the 1877 Belfast & Ulster Street Directory, which records it as a short street off Beersbridge Road made up of a “number of small houses”.
The 1880 directory repeats that description, simply noting that Tamery Street branched off Beersbridge Road.
By 1890, the directory describes it as running “from Beersbridge Road to Belmont Street” with several small houses lennonwylie.co.uk confirming it linked the main road to Belmont Street. Official postal lists still included Tamery Street as late as 1967 lennonwylie.co.uk, indicating it remained an address into the late twentieth century. In the 1970s redevelopment of Ballymacarrett, the terraced grid—including Tamery Street—was cleared.
Tamery Pass
The name Tamery was preserved in a new cul‑de‑sac, Tamery Pass, laid out near the site of the old street. It is first documented in a Belfast News‑Letter marriage notice in 1985, and was formally listed in an NI Roads (Speed Limit) Order 1988, showing the local authority adopted the new name. Today Tamery Pass lies off Beersbridge/Willowfield, on or close to the footprint of the demolished street.