Life
?1180-1250 [vars. Muireadhach Albanach O’Daly; Murdock O’Daly]; b. Co. Meath, chief poet of O’Donnells, killed a servant of Donal O’Donnell, and fled to the Norman Burkes of Clanricard, and when the O’Donnell’s ravaged the territory, was passed on to the O’Briens; fled to Limerick; forced to escape to Dublin and sent from thence to Scotland; the Clan Mac Muircadhaigh claim descent from him; made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land; offered a praise poem to the O’Donnell on his return; granted land and cattle by him as token of forgiveness; entered monastery with his brother Donnchadh Mór in his last years following the death of his wife; his lament for her from the Book of the Dean of Lismore is noticed also in The Annals of the Four Masters. ODNB DIW OCIL
Works
Eugene O’Curry, ed., Book of Dean of Lismore [3 poems].
Criticism
E. C. Quiggin, ‘Prolegomena to the Study of the Later Irish Bards 1200-1500’, Proceedings of the British Academy, Volo. V, App. A (1913); Osborn J. Bergin has written on Ó Dálaigh in Studies IX (1920), and Studies XIV (1925), and Studies XIII (1924); Meidhbhín Ní Úrdail, ‘Two Poems Attributed to Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh’, in Eriú , vol. 53 (2003), qpp.
See also Eugene O’Curry, On the Manner and Customs of the Ancient Irish (1873), Vol II, Lect. XXXIII [Mac Lauchlan unaware that he was Irish]; and T. F. Ó Ratháille, Measgra Dánta (Cork 1927).
Note: Alan Titley’ novel An Fear Dána (Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar 1993) is based on the life of Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh.
References
Dictionary of National Biography: fl.1213, wrote three poems in praise of O’Donnell, which led to his being forgiven by that noble.
Church of Ireland Hymnal (1960 & 1987 edns.), contains ‘Baoth a csoidhe, a Mhic Dé’, by Murdock O’Daly, 13th c., trans. Eleanor Hull [No.324]
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