Origin of Merasheen name

While a local tradition holds that Merasheen was named after two Frenchmen (Mere and Jean) who discovered and settled the area in the 1600s, other sources suggest Merasheen was first known as Mer aux Chiens ("ocean of the seadogs or seals"). Does anyone remember when it was pronounced Merishon by the old folks? I’d like to suggest a third source of the origin of the name based on other historical records.

People of British ancestry (English, Scottish, Irish) settled in Merasheen as early as the 17th century and by 1836 there were 188 residents. E.R. Seary (1977) notes that a "Pomeroy, from Ireland, settled at Merasheen about 1820," and other Irish names such as Hennessey and Houlihan trace their heritage back to at least that time.  LeMessurier in his lecture in 1910 references Gaelic naming influence when he notes there "are two places with names evidently of Irish origin, one is Glow Na Yob and the other is Glow Na Buch, the one means valley of the yew and the other poor man's valley".

The Lismore Papers (thanks John Ennis!), the diary of Sir Richard Boyle at Lismore Castle in Ireland in the early 16th century, refers to a place called Bally Merrisheen in County Limerick. Bally is roughly translated from the Gaelic phrase “Baile na” as “place of”. Today the Gaelic spelling is Baile Mhuirisin which is anglicized to Ballymorrisheen. Maybe some of our Irish ancestors from that area were the real source of the Merasheen name. Thoughts?