Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625 – January 1698) was one of the most significant

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

poets A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

of the 17th century. He lived through a momentous time in

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 33,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of homo sapiens to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Quaterna ...

and his work serves as testimony to the death of the old Irish cultural and political order and the decline in respect for the once honoured and feared poetic classes. His ode, ''D'Aithle Na bhFileadh'' (The High Poets are Gone) upon the death of a fellow poet is a particularly poignant reminder of this decline and lament that Ireland was now a far less educated place due to it.

Biography

He was born in Barrymore,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

''An Duanaire 1600-1900: Poems of the Dispossessed'', p 108 and spent much of his adult life in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

, receiving the patronage of both

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

landowners. This patronage was vital, as Ó Bruadair was the first of the 17th-century poets to attempt to live purely from his poetry, in the manner of the professional

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...

s of the medieval period. It would seem that this attempt was not particularly successful, as his poem ''Is mairg nár chrean le maitheas saoghalta'' indicates that he was reduced to working as a farm labourer. He died in poverty and, as poems such as ''Mairg nach fuil 'na Dhubhthuata'' (O It's best be a total boor) show, with bitterness on him towards the 'blind ignorant crew' that was the peasantry. This view was reflected by other poets such as

Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig 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 ...

. As well as Irish, Ó Bruadair knew

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. He was a poet of considerable range, and wrote on historical and political subjects, as well as producing elegies on a number of his patrons, bitter satires on

Cromwellian 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 Ki ...

planters Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...

, religious poems of real feeling and, almost uniquely amongst Gaelic poets, at least two

epithalamia An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form ...

. His versification was equally varied, and he wrote in both

syllabic Syllabic may refer to: *Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words **Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable *Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables *Abugida, writing system ...

and assonantal

metres The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

Bibliography

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Notes

External links

Biographical note

entry in ainm.ie (in Irish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obruadair, Daibhi 1625 births 1698 deaths People from County Cork 17th-century Irish people Irish poets Irish-language poets