Life
fl.1635-1668; Gaelic scribe who translated Keating; resided ad Ballyloskye, Co. Tipperary; b. Co., 1635-1668, his text being the basis of the edition of The Kings of the Race of Eibhear, a poem of John O’Dugan [Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin], brought out by John O’Daly in 1847. PI
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Works
John Daly [viz., O’Daly], ed., The Kings of the Race of Eibhear, A Chronological Poem, by John O’Dugan, with a translation by Michael Kearney, A.D. 1635 (Dublin 1847).
Commentary
Russell K. Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Penn UP 1959), p81f., giving details of his translation of Keating, as retaled by John Daly [O’Daly]; notes that a plate of the translation is included in Sir John Gilbert’s Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland, viz., Pt. IV, pl. LXXXIII; Commencement of Preface, transcribed by John O’Maelchonaire; text and tran. Pl LXXIV, Michael Kearney’s English version, 1668; Irish and English (Alspach, p.82); Alspach later discourses on Kearney’s translation of The Kings of the Race of Eibhear by John O’Dugan, quoting the Introduction: ‘I offer it as I found the same in an ancient mansucript, deserving of your kindnesse, if by a perfecter Coppie thereof appearing, you find any thing hereing misreported, or misplaced, you favourably rectifye the mistake, or omission by mee in this behalfe unwillingly committed’ (Alspach, p.104); Daly’s preface calls Kearney a native of Balllyloskye, Co. Cross Tipperary, and identifies him with Castle Kearney, a ruin which might have been his seat. (p.5; Alspach, p.104).
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References
D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); refers to a poem by the title of The Kings of Cashel, translated from the Irish of John O’Dugan (1847), apparently trans. in 1635 and not printed till then.
Quotations
‘The most important part of pleasant Eire,/Is Munster of the mountains-studded plains,/On account of her nobility, her wealth,/Her store of precious stones, and the honour her people support./I cannot conceal the good qualities of the men of Munster,/In whom no flaw was ever found;/they were famed for love of freedom, comeliness of countenance,/And loftiness of spirit.’ (Daly, ed., The Race of Eibhear, 1847, p.31.
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