Ó Cléirigh, Lughaidh

Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, The, January, 2000 by ROBERT WELCH

Ó Cléirigh, Lughaidh (?1580–?1640), poet and historian, and member of the Donegal learned family. His father Maccon (d. 1595 in Thomond) was chief historian to Ó Domhnaill, and his brothers Cúchoigcríche [ see Annals of the Four Masters ] and Maccon Meirgeach were also poets.

He is best known as the author of Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill , a heroic life of Red Hugh O'Donnell , completed some time before 1616. With Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha of Thomond, from whom he is said to have received instruction, he began the Contention of the Bards ( Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh ), in which he challenged Mac Bruaideadha's assertions that the southern poets were better than their northern counterparts.