Diarmait Ó Cobhthaigh (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1584) was an Irish poet.

Ó Cobhthaigh Ó Cobhthaigh is a Gaels, Gaelic-Irish surname, generally Anglicised as Coffey, Cofer, Coffer, Copher, Caughey, Coffee, Coffie, Coughey, Cauffey, Cauffy, Cauffie, Coffy, Coughay, Coffay, Coffeye, Couhig and many more. Overview Ó Cobhthaigh was t ...

was a member of a hereditary

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and 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 a ...

ic family, based in what is now

County Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...

but was once the heartland of the original kingdom of

Mide Meath ( ; ; ) was a kingdom in Ireland from the 1st to the 12th century AD. Its name means "middle," denoting its location in the middle of the island. At its greatest extent, it included all of County Meath (which takes its name from the k ...

. The family were from the district known as Fir Thulach. Dairmait was the author of a

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

for his murdered relative, Uaithne Ó Cobhthaigh (died 1556), which begins ''Dá néll orcha ós iath Uisnigh''/''Two clouds of woe over the land of

Uisneach The Hill of Uisneach or Ushnagh ( or ) is a hill and ancient ceremonial site in the barony of Rathconrath in County Westmeath, Ireland. It is a protected national monument. It consists of numerous monuments and earthworks—prehistoric and medi ...

''. His other work included five

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

poems: * ("Safeguard of children in the death of their father"), which consisted of one hundred and sixty verses. * ("The cost of life the death of a lord") * ("Alas! the pleader is facing the judge") * ("Alas! that I did not go to the king's house") * ("A powerful argument the tributes of a king") Extant versions of some of these poems are held by the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

References

* ''Ó Cobhthaigh family'', pp. 435–436, in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', volume 41, Norbury-Osbourne, September 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:O Cobhthaigh, Diarmait Writers from County Westmeath 16th-century Irish-language poets Irish religious writers People of Elizabethan Ireland

See also

References