Diarmait Ó Cobhthaigh was an Irish

poet 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 ...

, fl. 1584.

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 Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic inform ...

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. He was the

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

of a

penitential A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christianity, Christian sacrament of penance, used for regular private confession with a confessor-priest, a "new manner of reconciliation with God in Christianity, God" that was prom ...

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

, ''Acht mar uisge d'éis a leata'' ("Just as water, after it has frozen"), which was a translation of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

''Lympha coacta gelu'' ("Liquid, condensed by cold"). The translation survives only in a black half-column of Rawlinson B 505, on

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

89''v''b, a collection of Irish saint's lives now held by the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

References

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

See also

References