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Classical Modern Irish poems on the Í Cheallaigh
Mícheál Hoyne (DIAS)
Royal Irish Academy, 3.iii.2017
I.
POEMS ON UILLIAM Ó CEALLAIGH (†1381) AND HIS DESCENDANTS
Uilliam Ó Ceallaigh (†1381)
1 Táth aoinfhir ar iath Maineach ‘One man has united the land of the Í Cheallaigh’ (ABM
poem 457; critical edition forthcoming).
2 Uilliam mac Donnchaidh M[huimhnigh], sósar na cloinne, do ghabh ríghe Ó Maine ó
Chaire go Gréin d’aimhdheóin a námhad, agus do-ríne solamhain fá Nollaig is uaisle doclos riamh roimhe d’éigsibh agus d’ollamhnaibh Éireann agus do lucht gach aosa dána
agus iarratais na huile pobal Éireannach, agus do dháil eith agus airgead agus ionnmhasa
iliomdha mar nach tugadh riamh roimhe sin, agus do bhí cúig bliadhna ar thríochad i
láinríghe Ó Maine, ‘Uilliam son of Donnchadh M[uimhneach], the youngest of the family,
took the kingship of Uí Mhaine from Caire [ = Cora, Carrandoe in Co. Roscommon] to
Grian [= the River Graney in Co. Clare] in defiance of his enemies, and he made the
noblest Christmas feast ever heard of for the poets and chief-poets of Ireland and for all
the artistic and mendicant folk of every Irish population, and he distributed food and
silver and many treasures such as had never been given before, and he was thirty-five
years in full kingship of Uí Mhaine’ (N. Ó Muraíle, ‘The Ó Ceallaigh rulers of Uí Mhaine: a
genealogical fragment c. 1400 – Part I’, The Journal of the Galway Archaeological and
Historical Society 60 (2008), 32-77: 47-8).
3 Key dates for Uilliam Ó Ceallaigh
1340 civil war in Uí Mhaine
c. 1345 king of all Uí Mhaine
1351 Christmas feast for the poets of Ireland
1353 Kilconnell Franciscan Friary
1356 king of Connacht killed, power-transfer
c. 1375 withdraws from affairs of state
c. 1380 resigns as king of Uí Mhaine
1381 dies
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(Kilconnell Friary; http://www.monastic.ie/history/kilconnell-franciscan-friary/)
4 Ó nach adaimhthí, a chath Cuilt, / an té a-tá ag táth gach longphuirt / ní chéal ó
Cobhthaigh cláir Bhreagh / lérb áil comhthoil na gcóigeadh. Uilliam, ceann cloinne
Ceallaigh, / síodh ó nDuach do dheilbhcheangail; Ó geilCheallaigh is tearc tocht / do
dheilbhcheangail ceart Connocht, ‘As you do not acknowledge, O battle-band of Colt, him
who is uniting every stronghold, I will not the conceal the descendant of Cobhthach of
the plain of Bregia who desires the assent of the provinces. Uilliam, head of the Uí
Cheallaigh, fashioned and secured the peace of the descendants of Duach; fair Ó
Ceallaigh, who is rarely idle, has fashioned and secured what is right for Connacht’.
5 Filidh Éireann go haointeach ‘The poets of Ireland to a single house’ (E. Knott, Ériu 5
(1911), 50-69).
6 The beginning of Táth aoinfhir ar iath Maineach in Leabhar Ua Maine (f. 111r).
7 ‘Uilliam Ó Ceallaigh, Leabhar Ua Maine agus stair eacnamaíoch fhilíocht na scol’
(forthcoming).
‘Was there a synod of poets c. 1200, and did there need to be one?’ (forthcoming)
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Maol Eachlainn (†1401), son of Uilliam
8 Fa urraidh labhras leac Theamhrach ‘It is beneath a rightful ruler that the stone of
Tara speaks’ (ABM poem 215).
9 D. McManus, ‘ “The smallest man in Ireland can reach the tops of her trees”: images of
the king’s peace and bounty in Bardic poetry’ in J. Nagy (ed.), Memory and the modern in
Celtic literatures (Dublin, 2006), 61-117.
10 Fochan gorm ar ghortaibh bána / bláth gach doire ar dheallradh chróich; mar
bhriseadh saor éadaigh uaine / braon tré ghéagaibh nuaidhe um nóin, ‘There is dark corn
in white fields, the bloom of every tree is the colour of saffron; the rain comes through
new branches in the evening as through an open tear in a green garment’.
11 Luin ag comhsheinm um chlár Suca / re sruth mbog as binn a nuall; d’ísle na sreabh
gciúin d’Ú Cheallaigh / bean ar sdiúir tar ceannaibh cuan! ‘Blackbirds sing together
around the plain of the River Suck; their call is sweet-sounding by a gentle stream;
because of the shallowness of the water in the calm currents brought about by Ó
Ceallaigh, a woman is allowed to steer a ship out of harbour’.
12 D. McManus, ‘Good-looking and irresistible: the hero from Early Irish saga to
Classical poetry’, Ériu 59 (2009), 57-109.
13 Tombstone of Maol Eachlainn Ó Ceallaigh and his wife Fionnghuala
(In standard orthography) DO MHAOL EACHLAINN Ó CEALLAIGH, DO RÍGH Ó MAINE, AGUS
D’FHIONNGHUALA, INGHEAN UÍ CONCHOBHAIR, DO-RÍNE MATHA Ó COIGLIGH AN LEABAIDH-SE.
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(R.A.S. Malister, Corpus Inscriptionum Insularam Celticarum, Volume 2 (Dublin, 1949), 89; my thanks to Dr Marie-Luise Theuerkauf for providing me with a scan of this image).
14a Mairg neach do-ní dearbháile, ‘Woe is anyone who is dejected’ (T.F. O’Rahilly,
Measgra Dánta (Cork, 1927), poem 18).
14b Giolla Cuibhneacht?
Tadhg (†1410), son of Maol Eachlainn
15a A-nois do tuigfidhe Tadhg ‘Now can Tadhg be truly appreciated’ (AiD poem 10).
15b Fiacha Sraibhtheine killed by the Three Collas.
Gráinne (†1440), sister of Tadhg, daughter of Maol Eachlainn
16a Cia do-ghéabhainn go Gráinne / do bhacfadh dhí a dearbháile? Ar mo chomhairle an
mbia an bhean? mh’fhorfhuighle cia ó gcreidfeadh? Más fhíor Gráinne i nglas chumhadh /
nach urusa d’fhuasguladh / a-tá oram ’na eire / gobhang na mná Mainighe, ‘Whom can I
get to send to Gráinne to check her grief? Will she take my advice? What messenger
could get her to believe my words? Gráinne, I hear, is in chains of woe, and ’twill be hard
to free her; the prison of the lady of Í Mhaine oppresses me (too)’ (AiD poem 13.1-2).
16b Dearbh Áil, daughter of Tadhg an Eich Gil, consoled by Mac Coise.
17 Dá bhrághaid uaim i nInis ‘Two captives in Ennis’ (AiD poem 14).
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Uilliam (†1381)
Maol Eachlainn (†1401)
Tadhg Óg (†1410)
Gráinne (†1440)
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II.
ÓRLAIDH, DAUGHTER OF MUIRCHEARTACH AND ÉADAOIN
19 Dúthaigh deóradh magh Maine ‘The plain of Maine is a home for wanderers’ (AiD
poem 11).
20 Beag aithnim dom aos chumtha ‘I see few of my friends’ (AiD poem 12).
21 Muircheartach iomorra [...] do bhí clann aige roimh beith ina airdeaspag dhó, at iad
seo a n-anmanna .i. Tomás agus Maol Eachlainn, Domhnall agus Conchubhar agus
Órlaith, bean Donnchaidh Uí Cheallaigh, agus Róis, bean Cholla Uí Mhadadháin, agus
Bean Mhumhan, bean Uilleag Búrc, agus Áine agus Caitríona, ‘Muircheartach [...] had
children before he became archbishop and these are their name: Tomás and Maol
Eachlainn, Domhnall and Conchubhar and Órlaith, wife of Donnchadh Ó Ceallaigh, and
Róis, wife of Colla Ó Madadháin, and Bean Mhumhan, wife of Uilleag Búrc, and Áine and
Caitríona’ (N. Ó Muraíle, ‘The Ó Ceallaigh rulers of Uí Mhaine: a genealogical fragment c.
1400 – Part I’, The Journal of the Galway Archaeologicaland Historical Society 60 (2008),
32-77: 44).
22
Donnchadh Muimhneach (†1307)
Maine
Uilliam (†1381)
Pilib
Maol Eachlainn (†1401)
Muircheartach (†1407)
Tadhg (†1410)
Órlaith
(Persons marked in bold are the subject of extant Bardic poems)
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Gráinne (†1440)
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III.
POEMS ON TADHG (SON OF DOMHNALL) Ó CEALLAIGH (†1316) IN TCD H.2.7
23
Conchobhar (†1268)
Domhnall (†1295)
Donnchadh (†1307)
Tadhg (†1316)
Uilliam (†1381)
24 Uasal an síol Síol Ceallaigh ‘The Uí Cheallaigh are a noble family’.
25 Seoán Ó Dubhagáin do-ríne an ealadha-so.
25a Tairngeartaidh tréan tógbháltach ‘A mighty, conquering prophesied one’.
an fear-sain ros fuighlim-se / táinig, tiocfa, a-tá, ‘this man of whom I speak, he has come,
he will come, he is’.
25b Is é Tadhg tig a-noir ‘It is Tadhg who is coming from the east’.
25c Tadhg triath ós chách ‘Tadhg, a lord over all’.
25d Tadhg triath ós na tréinfhearaibh ‘Tadhg, lord over the warriors’.
26 P. Ó Macháin, ‘Maghnus Ó Conchubhair, rí Connacht (1288-1293): blogh dá
dhuanaire’ in S. Ó Coileáin, L.P. Ó Murchú and P. Riggs (eds), Séimhfhear suairc: aistí in
ómós don Ollamh Breandán Ó Conchúir (An Daingean, 2013), 679-704.
P. Ó Macháin, ‘Aspects of bardic poetry in the thirteenth century’ in C. Breatnach and M.
Ní Úrdail (eds), Aon don éigse: essays marking Osborn Bergin’s centenary lecture on
bardic poetry (1912) (Dublin, 2015), 91-125.
ABBREVIATIONS
ABM = D. McManus and E. Ó Raghallaigh, A Bardic miscellany (Dublin, 2010).
AiD = L. McKenna, Aithdioghluim Dána, 2 volumes (London, 1939/40).
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