Muiris mac Torna Ó Maolconaire facts for kids

Muiris mac Torna Ó Maolconaire was an important Irish scribe, historian, and poet. He lived a long time ago and passed away in 1645.

Background and Family History

Muiris was born in a place called Cluain Plocáin in County Roscommon, Ireland. His father was Torna Ó Maolconaire. Muiris belonged to the famous Ó Maolconaire family. This family was known for its scribes and historians. Sometimes, people mix him up with another family member, Muirgheas mac Pháidín Ó Maolconaire.

Helping with the Annals of the Four Masters

Muiris helped create a very important book called the Annals of the Four Masters. This book is a collection of historical records from ancient Ireland. He worked as a scribe on this huge project for about one month. A scribe is someone who copies documents by hand.

Historian Bernadette Cunningham says that much of the first part of the original book is in Muiris's handwriting. She also notes that Muiris was a poet and a seanchaidh. A seanchaidh is like a traditional historian or storyteller. He wrote poems praising important people of his time. It's thought that Muiris might have been the son of Torna mac Eoluis Uí Mhaoil Chonaire. This would mean he came from a long line of famous scribes.

A Special Poem Written for Muiris

After Muiris died in 1645, another poet named Maolmhuire mac Eóghain Ó hUiginn wrote a special poem for him. This type of poem is called an elegy, which is a poem of sadness for someone who has died. The poem was titled Máthar na horcha an égsi, which means Poetry is the mother of sorrow.

This elegy focused on Muiris's skills as a poet. It did not mention his work as a historian or scribe as much. Muiris was the only person from the six-member team who worked on the Annals of the Four Masters to have an elegy written for him by his friends. This shows how respected he was as a scholar. It also tells us that his role in the Annals project, even if short, was still very important. He was not a "junior" member but a skilled scholar.

For example, in 1627, a famous scholar named Sir James Ware received an old manuscript from Muiris. This shows that Muiris had access to important historical documents.

Sources

• Marbhna ar Mhuiris Mac Torna Uí Mhaoilchonaire, Réamann Ó Muireadhaigh, Eigse 15:3 (1974), pp. 295–21.
• Muirgheas Ó Maolconaire of Cluain Plocáin: an early sixteenth-century Connacht scribe at work, Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, Studia Hibernica 35 (2008–09), pp. 17–43.
• Muiris Ó Maolconaire, in Dictionary of Irish biography (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009)
• The Annals of the Four Masters: Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century, p. 60, 142–3, 261, 262, 275, Bernadette Cunningham, Four Courts Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-84682-203-2.