Blathmac mac Con Brettan was an Irish poet and monk whose

floruit ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicat ...

was around 760. Blathmac was the son of Cú Brettan mac Congussa (died 740), seemingly a king of the Airthir, one of the

Airgíalla Airgíalla (Modern Irish: Oirialla, English: Oriel, Latin: ''Ergallia'') was a medieval Irish over-kingdom and the collective name for the confederation of tribes that formed it. The confederation consisted of nine minor kingdoms, all independe ...

kingdoms, situated in modern-day

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has ...

. His brother Donn Bó was killed in battle in 759. Cú Brettan and Donn Bó both appear as characters in the saga ''Cath Almaine'' and are portrayed as poets. Blathmac was educated in a monastic school and went on to become a monk. A manuscript containing his surviving poems, two meditations on the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

, ''Tair cucum a Maire boid and A Maire, a grian ar clainde,'' once in the possession of

Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (), sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe and antiquary and chief author of the ''Annals of the Four Masters,'' assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, and Per ...

, is in the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ga, Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann) is the Republic of Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland i ...

, where it was re-discovered by Nessa Ní Shéaghdha in 1953.Harbison, Peter. "Blathmac—an eighth-century Irish poet in Rome", ''History Ireland'', Issue 4 (July/August 2016), Volume 24
/ref> Art historian Peter Harbison says that st some point, Blathmac probably visited Rome as much of his poems reflect scenes depicted on mosaics in old Roman churches.

References

Sources

* Robert Welch, ''Oxford Concise Companion to Irish Literature'', 1996. * James Carney, "Language and literature to 1169" in Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (ed.), ''A New History of Ireland. Volume I: Prehistoric and Early Ireland'', 2005. * James Carney, 'The poems of Blathmac, son of Cú Brettan: together with the Irish Gospel of Thomas and a poem on the Virgin Mary'. Irish Texts Society, London 1964 * Siobhán Barrett and David Stifter, 'Blathmac’s stanzas 260–303 on Judgement Day', ''Celtica'' 31 (2019): 19‒89. * Edward O'Reilly, ''A Chronological Account of Nearly Four Hundred Irish Writers'', Dublin, 1820 (reprinted 1970) * Brian Lambkin
"Blathmac and the Céili Dé: a reappraisal"
''Celtica'' 23, 1999 * Brian Lambkin, 'The Structure of the Blathmac Poems', ''Studia Celtica'' 20–21, 1985–6, 76–77. * Nessa Ní Shéaghdha, 'The poems of Blathmhac: the ‘fragmentary quatrains', ''Celtica'' 23 (1999): 227–230. * David Stifter, 'The Language of the Poems of Blathmac'
Online
8th-century Irish poets Irish Christian monks People from County Monaghan Irish male poets Irish-language writers {{Ireland-poet-stub