Background and family

Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe was a descendant of the Cenél nEógain

Cenél nEógain

Cenél nEóġain is the name of the "kindred" or descendants of Eógan mac Néill , son of Niall Noígiallach who founded the kingdom of Tír Eoghain in the 5th century...

; Ceart Uí Néill places the Mac Con Midhe (MacNamee) family in the area of Ardstraw

Ardstraw

Ardstraw is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, three miles northwest of Newtownstewart. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 222 people....

. His mother was of the Cenél Chonaill, so he addressed poems to the Ó Domhaills as well as the Ó Néills. However, his closest relationships was the O Gormley rulers of Ardstraw.

Mac Con Midhe married and had children, all of whom died at an early age. The childlessness of himself and his wife led him to compose Deán oram trócaire, a Thríonnóid, an anguished plea to God and the saints to grant them just one child.

There is speculation that there was another poet of the same name who lived earlier in the 13th cent.

Compositions and fame

Diarmaid Ó Diobhlin (2000) has written of him as follows:

Giolla Brighde was highly regarded by his contemporaries and there are allusions to his poems in the works of later bards and in the bardic tracts ... Like much of the bardic poetry that has come down to us, Giolla Brighde's verse is stately, precise and controlled and clearly the product of a very sophisticated personality ...

He composed poems for several notable Irish kings and chieftains, including:

• King Domnall Mór of Tír Chonaill, d.1241
• Padraig Ua hAnluain of Airgíalla
  Airgíalla
  Airgíalla or Airgialla was the name of an Irish federation and Irish kingdom which first formed around the 7th century...
  
  , d. 1243
• King Áed of Connacht, d.1247
• Gofraid Ó Dómhnaill, d.1258
• Ó Gormshleaghaigh of Ardstraw
  Ardstraw
  Ardstraw is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, three miles northwest of Newtownstewart. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 222 people....
  
  
• Roalbh Mac Mathgamna of Airgíalla
  Airgíalla
  Airgíalla or Airgialla was the name of an Irish federation and Irish kingdom which first formed around the 7th century...
  
  , fl.1270
• King Domnall Óg of Tír Chonaill, d. 1282

Besides pangeryics, he composed a number of religious verse. Outstanding among them is Deán oram trócaire, a Thríonnóid (Have mercy on me, O Trinity) in which he pleads for the Holy Trinity to grant him and his wife just one child, as all of their previous children have died.

A theachtair thig ón Róihm (O messenger whom comes from Rome) is ascribed to him, which defends poets and poetry against attacks by the church. However, there is some doubt that he was its author.

Giolla Brighde's death is mention in the poem Lenfat mo cheart ar Cloinn Dálaigh(I will claim my right from the sons of Dálach), which states King Domnall Og plundered the Ó Gormshleaghaighs while they were burying Giolla Brighide. When Domnaill Óg was told why they had not fought against him, he returned all that he had plundered as a mark of respect for the poet, who had addressed several poems to him.

His poems have been preserved in a wide variety of manuscripts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries

Selected list of poems

• Deán oram trócaire, a Thríonnóid
• Aoidhe mo chroidhe ceann Briain (a lament for Brian Ó Néill, killed at the battle of Down
  Down
  Down may refer to:* Relative direction, where down is the direction towards the centre of gravity of a celestial object.* Railroad directions, where down and up have locally significant meanings...
  
   in 1260.
• A-tá sunn seanchas Mu-áin
• A theachtaire thig ón Róimh
• Rogha na cloinne Conall

External links

• http://celt.ucc.ie/itbardic.html#gbmacconmidhe