Life
fl.1715 [Mac Shamhradáin; Hugh McGauran; occas. MacGuaran]; b. Glengoole, Co. Cavan; member of the Ó Neachtain Dublin circle;
author of “Pléaráca na Ruarcach”, erroneously attributed by Goldsmith to Carolan, who played it before Swift, resulting in Swift’s translation-version as “The Description of an Irish-Feast” (1720); also “Achasán na Mharcaigh”, a ribald love song, attrib. by Edward O’Reilly (A Chronological Account [ ...], 1820).
Commentary
Andrew Carpenter, ‘Changing Views of Irish Musical and Literary Culture in Eighteenth-centry Anglo-Irish Literature’, in Irish Literature and Culture, ed. Michael Kenneally (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1992), p.13, quoting Swift’s translation of “Pléaráca na Ruarcach”, as “O’Rourke’s Feast”: ‘Come harper, strike up, but first by your Favour/ … [&c.; see Jonathan Swift, q.v.].
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