Dónal Meirgeach Mac Conmara, 18th-century 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 ...

. Mac Conmara was a native of Irrul, south-west

County Mayo County Mayo (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, County Mayo, Mayo, now ge ...

. His nickname, ''Meirgeach'', means ''freckled''. He was forced by his father to marry a wealthy girl called Sile Ni Mhaille from Drumainn, "but afterwards continued to frequent a girl of the Fergus family from Carrowmore, with whom he was in love. When this fact was discovered, he went into 'exile', to Tipperary. He is credited with the authorship of the well-known song, "An Ghaoth Andeas" ("The South Wind"), which asks the wind to carry a kiss from him to his native province" in a composition of forty-eight lines.

References

* "County Mayo in Gaelic Folksong",

Brian O'Rourke Sir Brian O'Rourke (; c. 1540 – 1591) was first king and then lord of West Bréifne in the west of Ireland from 1566 until his execution in 1591. He reigned during the later stages of the Tudor conquest of Ireland and his rule was marked by ...

, pp. 179–80, ''Mayo: Aspects of its Heritage'', ed. Bernard O'Hara, 1982. 18th-century Irish-language poets Writers from County Mayo Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Irish poets {{Ireland-poet-stub