Life
Learned family asssociated with Co. Galway, Co. Donegal and Co. Monaghan; Conchubhar Ruadh (fl.1505); Somhairle mac an Bhaird (fl.1649), great-grand-nephew of Conchubhar (fl.1505); Aodh Buidhe Mac an Bhaird [Hugh Ward, var. MacAnward] (?1580-1635), who initiated the Annals of the Four Masters project; Diarmaid Mac an Bhaird (fl.1670), son of Laoiseach Mac an Bhaird (fl.1600), prob. residing in in Co. Monaghan; Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird [var. Eoghan Ruadh mac Uilliam Óig] (?1570-?1630), hereditary ollamh of the O’Donnell chieftains; resident in Co. Donegal; accompanied Rory O’Donnell into exile (Flight of the Earls, 1607); author of “A Bhean Fuair Fall ar a bhFeart [called ‘Woman of the Piercing Wail’ in Mangan’s trans.], bewailing Rory’s death at Rome, 1608; Fearghal Óg Mac an Bhaird (?1550-?1620), br.-in-law of Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha; sought and gained patronage of James VI at Edinburgh, 1581; encouraged Hugh O’Neill to oppose English power in Ireland; also Godfraidh Óg Mac an Bhaird (fl. 1590).
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Criticism
See Lambert McKenna, SJ, Dioghluim Dána (1938), and Aithdioghluim Dána (1939); Tomás Ó Rathile, Dánta Grádha, trans. with intro. by Robin Flower (1926); Eleanor Knott, An Introdution to Irish Syllabic Poetry 1200-1600 (1928); T. F. O’Rahilly, Measgra Dánta (1927). Also edns. of indiv. poets, incl. T. Ó Donnchadha. ed., Leabhar Cloinne Aodha Buidhe (1931); and Owen Connellan, ed., ‘A Bhean Fuair Faill [...]’ together with a translation by James Clarence Mangan, in Transactions of the Ossianic Society, V (1860), pp.294-308; Sarah E. McKibben, Endangered Masculinities in Irish Poetry 1540-1780 (UCD Press 2010), 208pp. .
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References
Brian Cleeve & Ann Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985) cites Aodh Buidhe Mac an Bhaird [Hugh Ward, or Hugh MacAnward] (?1580-1635); Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird (?1570-?1630); Feargal Óg Mac an Bhaird (?1550-?1620); Godfraidh Mac an Bhaird (fl.1600); Godfraidh Fionn Mac an Bhaird (fl.1610) Godfraidh Óg Mac an Bhaird (n.d.; contemporary of Hugh O’Neill); Godfraith Mac Briain Mac an Bhaird (fl.1600); Laoiseach Mac an Bhaird (fl.1600); and Maolmuire Mac Connladh (d.1597).
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