Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin


Life
fl.1350-?1372 [O’Dugan]; member of bardic family at Baile Uí Dhubhagáin, nr. Loughrea, Co. Galway; ollamh to the O’Kellys, author of vast topographical poem on distribution of clans and septs at the time of the Norman invasion, covering fully Ulster, Connacht, and Meath [var. Leinster and Munster: ODNB], and completed by Giolla-na-Naomh Ó Huidhrin in 1420;
 
made pilgrimage to St. Columba’s tomb and retired to monastery on Loughrea; Michael Kearney, a scribe in Ballylargye, Co. Tipperary, translated a poem attributed to Ó Dubhagáin into halting English verse as ‘The Kings of the Race of Eibhear’; his obituary appears in Annals of Connacht [ ‘saí re senchas ollam Ua Maine/a master-historian and chief poet of the Uí Maine’]. DIW ODNB

 

Works
John O’Daly, The Kings of the Race of Eibhear (Dublin 1847), and Do., The topographical poems of John O’Duhbhangain and Giolla-na-Naomh O’Huidrin, ed. with trans, notes, and introductory dissertations by J. O'Donovan. [Irish arch. and Celtic Soc.] (Dublin 1862) [23 cm.].

 

Notes
Great teacher: There is an holograph manuscript by Adam Ó Cianáin in the National Library of Ireland entitled ‘a leabhar Ó oidi moir .i. Seoan Ó Dubhagán [from the book of my great teacher], 1635’ (MSS NLI G 2-3).

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