Tadg Óg Ó hUiginn

Tadg Óg Ó hUiginn (born c.1370, died 1448) was an Irish poet.

Life and background

Ó hUiginn was a member of a well-known Irish family of bards, based in Connacht. His father, Tadg Mór, died in 1391, while all that is known of his mother is her first name, Aine. He had an elder brother, Fearghal Ruadh Ó hUiginn, who succeeded his father as head of the family and died c.1400. Tadg Óg laments his brother's death in a poem, which he wrote c.1400 when he was in his early thirties, entitled Anocht sgaoilid na sgola (also known by the initial line of stanza 14, Me a dhearbhrathair 's a dhalta).[1] Marc Caball (p. 578) believes him to have been a great-grandson of Tadhg Ó hUiginn, a celebrated poet who died in 1315.

Further personal details are few, but he did marry and have issue. His descendants included an Archbishop of Tuam, and the poet Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (died c.1591). The Irish annals state that he kept a guest house for scholars and pilgrims, and died at Kilconla (Kilconla should read ‘Kilcloney’- the remains of his Castle can be seen today outside Milltown. I lived in Kilconla MOF1) in the barony of Dunmore, County Galway, in 1448. He was buried in the priory of Strade, County Mayo.

His school at Kilconla was still functioning in 1574, overseen by his descendant, Domnall Ó hUiginn.

Poetic works

Ó hUiginn enjoyed a great professional reputation within his own lifetime, and was regarded as a master poet. His work enjoyed a wide range of appreciation, which apparent from the long list of prominent Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Irish lords who were subjects of his work:

Marc Caball (p. 579) draws attention to his successfully "composing works of affective power and elegance ... nothwithstanding the somewhat formulaic configuration of the bardic form."

Devotional poems of his formed part of the Yellow Book of Lecan. Extracts of his verse were cited as models of poetic excellence in bardic school and tutorial tracts.

Select works
  • A-táid trí comhruig im chionn
  • Cia do-ghéabhainn go Gráinne
  • Dá bhrághaid uaim i nInis
  • Foillsigh do mhíorbhuile, a Mhuire

See also

References
  1. Bergin, Osborn, 'Unpublished Irish poems XXV — On the breaking up of a school', in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 13 (1924), pp. 85–90
  • Ó hUiginn, Tadhg Óg, Marc Caball, in Dictionary of Irish biography, pp. 578–79, Cambridge, 2009.
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