Ó Dálaigh, Gofraidh Fionn

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

Ó Dálaigh, Gofraidh Fionn (d. 1387), poet; born probably in Duhallow, Co. Cork, and probably educated in a bardic school of the Mac Craith learned family. The Annals of the Four Masters describe him as the chief ollam of his time [see áes dána ]. As a professional poet he served the MacCarthys, the Earls of Desmond, and the O'Briens of Thomond.

Gofraidh's praise-poetry is indicative of the political ambivalence of the bardic poets. In ‘Mór ar bhfearg riot, a rí Saxan’ , he compares Maurice Fitzmaurice, Earl of Desmond, to the Tuatha Dé Danann deity Lug [see Irish mythology ]; however, Maurice is also said to be the fosterling of the King of England. Gofraidh was respected as a moral and religious poet, one of...

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