Origin
Ó Cearbhaill appears to have been descended from the Ó Cearbhaill of Airgíalla, a kingdom which once covered Monaghan and Louth. He performed upon theBraganstown Massacre
Ó Cearbhaill was one of over one hundred and sixty people killed at the Braganstown Massacre on Saturday, 10 June 1329. The killers were local people of Louth who objected to being ruled by an outsider (Bermingham was from Uí Failghe). John Clyn states that "His entire earldom conspired against him, being unwilling that he should rule over them. They took counsel as one, and gathered in a great mass of armed men. Not sparing one of his 'familia', they killed him with his two brothers and around nine of his 'cognomine' and with one hundred and sixty and more." However, Clyn reserved his grief for Ó Cearbhaill, writing that:''In ista strage et eodem die Cam O'Kayrwill, famosus ille timpanista et cytharista, in arte sea fenix, ca pollens prerogativa et virtute, cum aliis tympanistis disciplulis djus circiter 20 ibidem occubuit. Iste ... vocatus Cam O'Kayrwyll, quia luscus erat nec habebat oculos rectos, sed oblique respiciens, et si non fuerat artis musice cordalis primus inventor, omnium tamen predcessorum et precedentium ipsum, ac contemporaneorum, corrector, doctor et director extitit.''Bernadette Williams translates this as:
''And on the same day, in this massacre, Ó Cearbhaill, that famous timpanist and harpist, supreme in his art, mighty in precedence and excellence, lay in the grave in the same place, with about twenty other timpanists, his students. He was called Cam Ó Cearbhaill because he was one-eyed and could not see straight, but looked obliquely; and, if he was not the first inventor of the art of string music, all his predecessors and precursors, he was corrector, scholar and director.''
See also
* Clàrsach * List of unsolved murders * Music of Ireland *References
* Ann Buckley, "What was the Tiompán? A Problem in Ethnohistorical Organology. Evidence in Irish Literature", in ''Jahrbuch für musikalische Volks- und Völkerkunde'', vol. 9 (1977), p. 53–88. * A. Buckley, "Timpán/Tiompán", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London, 1980), and in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments'' (London, 1986). * A. Buckley, "Musical Instruments in Ireland from the 9th to the 14th Centuries: A Review of the Organological Evidence", in: ''Irish Musical Studies'' vol. 1 (Blackrock: Irish Academic Press, 1990), pp. 13–57. * A. Buckley, "Music and Musicians in Medieval Irish Society", in: ''Early Music'' vol. 28 (2000), May, pp. 165–190. * A. Buckley, "Music in Ireland to ''c.''1500", in: ''A New History of Ireland'', vol. 1, ed. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (Oxford, 2005), pp. 744–813. * Bernadette Williams (ed.), ''The Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn'' (Dublin, 2007), pp. 95–96, 95–101, 102, 194, . * A. Buckley, "Ó Cerbaill, Maelruanaid", in ''The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland'', ed. Harry White and Barra Boydell (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2013), p. 748–749. {{DEFAULTSORT:OCearbhaill, Maol Ruanaidh Cam 14th-century Irish musicians Irish hammered dulcimer players Irish harpists Irish male harpists Medieval Gaels from Ireland Medieval Irish musicians Musicians from County Louth People murdered in Ireland Unsolved murders in Ireland