Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh (-1795?) was an Irish poet.

Life

Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh was born in

Glenflesk Glenflesk () is a small village in County Kerry, Ireland. It is located on the N22 national primary route between Cork and Killarney. The local Roman Catholic church is dedicated to Saint Agatha and was built . Glenflesk is in the Roman Catholi ...

, County Kerry around 1702. She was the daughter of Domhnall Ó Donnchadha and his wife Alice (née Ferriter). She was descended from Uí Dhonnchadha an Ghleanna (

O'Donoghue of the Glens The O'Donoghue of the Glens (Irish: ''Ó Donnchadha na nGleann''), Prince of Glenflesk, is the hereditary chieftain of his sept of the Kerry Eóganacht, Munster, Ireland. In 1944, his father was one of the few Chiefs of the Name recognized by Edw ...

). Her branch of the family, who settled in a place called Anees in Glenflesk, used the suffix "Dubh". Séafraidh Ó Donnchadha was her uncle and also a poet, known for hosting poets and scribes at Killaha castle, near Killarney. Around 1718, she married Domhnall Mór Ó Conaill (died 1770), and she is believed to have overseen the construction of the family home,

Derrynane House Derrynane House () was the home of Irish politician and statesman, Daniel O'Connell. It is now an National Monument and part of a 320-acre (1.3 km²) national historic park. The house is located on the Iveragh peninsula on the Ring of Kerry ...

. The couple had 22 children, with four sons and eight daughters surviving to adulthood. Her son, Maurice O'Connell, inherited Derrynane House. Her most famous daughter is

Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (also known as Eileen O'Connell, ) was a member of the Irish gentry and a poet. She was the main composer of ''Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire'', a traditional lament in Irish described (in its written form) as the greate ...

a fellow poet. Oral tradition tells of Máire Ní Dhuibh's pride, determination and wittiness, with conjecture that her grandson,

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

, inherited her intellectual and orating abilities. She is believed to have died around 1795.

References

1700s births 1790s deaths Writers from County Kerry Irish women poets 18th-century Irish poets Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown {{Ireland-poet-stub