Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig (c. 1580 – 1653) was an Irish poet and priest. He is not to be confused with any of the Barons of Upper Ossory, his relations, several of whom bore the same name in Irish.

Background

Mac Giolla Phádraig was a scion of the dynasty that ruled

Ossory Osraige (Old Irish) or Osraighe (Classical Irish), Osraí (Modern Irish), anglicized as Ossory, was a medieval Irish kingdom comprising what is now County Kilkenny and western County Laois, corresponding to the Diocese of Ossory. The home of ...

from before the 8th century. Only a handful of his poems are extant. A cry of despair against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, and its consequences for the world and class to which he belonged, his ''Faisean Chláir Éibhir'' bears a striking resemblance to the poetry of the great

Dáibhí Ó Bruadair Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625 – January 1698) was one of the most significant Irish language poets of the 17th century. He lived through a momentous time in Irish history and his work serves as testimony to the death of the old Irish cultural an ...

: ''"A trick of this false world has laid me low: servants in every home with grimy English but no regard for one of the poet class save "Out! and take your precious Gaelic with you!"'' Mac Giolla Phádraig was ordained a priest in 1610. In 1622 he made a copy of the Leabhar Branach, a book of Irish poetry in praise of the O'Byrne chieftains; it is thanks to this copy that the poems survive. Around the year 1651 he was appointed vicar general and apostolic vicar of the

diocese of Ossory The Bishop of Ossory () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been ...

, which covers County Kilkenny and western County Laois. He was killed by

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

's forces shortly afterwards. In ''Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica'', his death is described: "He was pursued into a cave by the heretics, who there cut off his head, placed it on a pole at the gates of a certain town and left his body to be devoured by the wild beasts." The historian William Carrigan writes that according to local tradition, slaughter was committed on church people in Tinwear, a quarter of a mile from Durrow. According to Fearghus Ó Fearghail in ''Kilkenny History and Society'', "Bernard Fitzpatrick, who had administered the díocese after Bishop Rothe’s death from his hiding place in his ancestral home in County Laois, was tracked down and killed in 1653." A memorial to Mac Giolla Phádraig is in the square in Durrow.

''Faisean Chláir Éibhir''

The full title comes from its first line: ''Och mo chreachsa faisean chláir Éibhir''. Mac Giolla Phádraig's most famous work deplored the anglicisation of ordinary poor Irish farm labourers, pejoratively known as

churl A churl (Old High German ), in its earliest Old English (Anglo-Saxon) meaning, was simply "a man" or more particularly a "free man", but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile peasant", still spelled , and denoting the lowest rank of freemen. A ...

s, in the 1600s. He considered that formerly they were poorer and more respectful of his Church and Gaelic culture, but were now starting to adopt materialism and the English language. Extracts give a flavour: :‘… each beggarwoman’s son has curled locks, bright cuffs about his paw, and a golden ring like a prince of the blood of Cas.. each churl or his son is starched up around the chin, a scarf thrown around him and a garter on him, his tobacco-pipe in his gob.. his knuckles bedecked with bracelets.. a churl in each house that is owned by a speaker of horrible English and no-one paying any heed to a man of the poetic company, save for "Get out, and take your precious Gaelic with you".' Is cor do leag mé cleas an phlás-tsaoile: mogh i ngach teach ag fear an smáil-Bhéarla 's gan scot ag neach le fear den dáimh éigse ach 'hob amach is beir leat do shár-Gaeilgsa'

Notes

References

* ''Irish poets, historians, and judges in English documents, 1538–1615'', T.F. O'Rahilly, RIA Proc. 26 C (1921–4), 88–120. * ''Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig'', C. Mhág Craith, '' Celtica'' 4 (1958) 103–205 * ''An appeal for a guarantor'', Pádraig A. Bhreatnach, ''Celtica'' 21 (1990), 28–37, esp. pp. 32–33

External links

Gleanings from Irish manuscripts
National Library of Scotland
The Fitzpatrick – Mac Giolla Phádraig Clan Society
The Fitzpatrick Clan Society

Background

''Faisean Chláir Éibhir''

Notes

References

External links

See also