Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin (c. 1715 – 1795), known in English as Timothy O'Sullivan, was a composer of mostly

Christian poetry Christian poetry is any poetry that contains Christian teachings, themes, or references. The influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly reference the Bible, while ...

in the

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 ...

whose ''Pious Miscellany'' was reprinted over 40 times in the early 19th century.

Early life and works

Ó Súilleabháin was born in Míntín Eoghain in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

Killeedy Killeedy () is a civil parish located south of Newcastle West in Co. Limerick in Ireland. This parish consists of two villages, Ashford and Raheenagh. The elevation of the parish varies from 1,184 ft. OS at Mauricetown and 1,082 ft. ...

near

Tournafulla Tournafulla, or Toornafulla (), is a village in the southwest of County Limerick, Ireland. Tournafulla is a long single-street village. It has a Catholic church, a primary school, three pubs, a community hall and a GAA pitch. As of the 2016 cen ...

, in the Sliabh Luachra region of

County Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Ireland, Province , subd ...

c.1715. His early works were reflective of

Munster Irish Munster Irish () is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Gaeltachtaí of the Dingle Peninsula in west County Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in Cap ...

bardic poetry of the period, including laments, eulogies, "drinking songs" and Aisling-themed

war poet A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...

ry promoting the

Jacobite risings , war = , image = Prince James Francis Edward Stuart by Louis Gabriel Blanchet.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766 , active ...

. Ó Súilleabháin lived in

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 a ...

for a period and was friendly with fellow Jacobite poet Seán "Clárach" Mac Domhnaill. After moving to Dungarvan, County Waterford during the 1760s, he experienced a religious conversion and thereafter primarily composed

upon themes such as the Holy Trinity, the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

, the rosary, and St

Declán of Ardmore Declán of Ardmore ( sga, Declán mac Eircc; ga, Deaglán, Deuglán; la, Declanus; died 5th century AD), also called Déclán, was an early Irish saint of the Déisi Muman, who was remembered for having converted the Déisi in the late 5th cen ...

. Up to the time of his death, Tadhg Gaelach was sometimes looked after by the O'Callaghans; a relatively prosperous

Ballylaneen Ballylaneen ( previously spelt as Baile Uí Laithín) is a small village and townland in County Waterford, Ireland, approximately halfway between the villages of Kilmacthomas and Bunmahon on a hill by the River Mahon. Features The village feat ...

Catholic farming family. He was also a frequent guest of the village

Roman Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

, Fr. Richard Morrissey. Other local friends and patrons included the O'Phelan (Ó Faoláin) family, and one of his last songs is written in their honour ''Do Seoirse agus Domhnall Ó Faoiláin'' to be sung to the air, "Bonny Jane".

Death and legacy

Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin is said to have collapsed and died while praying inside St. Patrick's Church in

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

in April 1795, and lies buried in

. Upon hearing of the death of his close friend and fellow poet,

Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara (1715–1810) was an Irish schoolmaster of a hedge school, Jacobite propagandist, anti-hero in Irish folklore, and composer of poetry in both Munster Irish and in the Irish language outside Ireland. Life He was born ...

composed a

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as ...

for Ó Súilleabháin in

Neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

verse. Daniel Corkery (1926), ''The Hidden Ireland: A Study of Gaelic Munster in the Eighteenth Century'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, pages 246 - 247. While manuscripts of Ó Súilleabháin's Christian poetry had already circulated before his death, and in 1802 a printed collection of twenty-five religious poems was published at Clonmel under the title ''Timothy O'Sullivan's Irish Pious Miscellany''. Between 1816 and 1879 more than a dozen new editions of the ''Pious Miscellany'' were printed and sold in Clonmel,

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...

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 ...

, and

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, which leaves little doubt that it was the most widely read Irish-language book ever published before the later Gaelic revival. A collection of Tadhg Gaelach's hymns were published by ''an tAthair''

Pádraig Ua Duinnín Patrick Stephen Dinneen ( ga, Pádraig Ua Duinnín; 25 December 1860 – 29 September 1934) was an Irish lexicographer and historian, and a leading figure in the Gaelic revival. Life Dinneen was born near Rathmore, County Kerry. He was educat ...

in Dublin in 1903.

References

External links

Tadhg Gaelach Ó Súilleabháin

Dictionary of Irish Biography The ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'' (DIB) is a biographical dictionary of notable Irish people and people not born in the country who had notable careers in Ireland, including both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.Timothy O'Sullivan's Pious Miscellany
published in Irish in 1868, by John O'Daly Publishers, 9 Anglesea St., Dublin {{DEFAULTSORT:O Suilleabhain, Tadhg Gaelach 1715 births 1795 deaths 18th-century Irish-language poets Irish Catholic poets Irish poets Irish Jacobites Jacobite poets Underground education Writers from County Limerick

Early life and works

Death and legacy

Further reading

References

External links