Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh (-1795?) was an Irish poet.
Life
Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh was born in
Glenflesk, County Kerry around 1702. She was the daughter of Domhnall Ó Donnchadha and his wife Alice (née Ferriter). She was descended from Uí Dhonnchadha an Ghleanna (
O'Donoghue of the Glens). Her branch of the family, who settled in a place called Anees in Glenflesk, used the suffix "Dubh".
Séafraidh Ó Donnchadha was her uncle and also a poet, known for hosting poets and scribes at Killaha castle, near Killarney.
Around 1718, she married Domhnall Mór Ó Conaill (died 1770), and she is believed to have overseen the construction of the family home,
Derrynane House
Derrynane House () was the home of Irish politician and statesman, Daniel O'Connell. It is protected as a national monument and part of a 320-acre (1.3 km2) national historic park. The house is located on the Iveragh peninsula on the Ring o ...
. The couple had 22 children, with four sons and eight daughters surviving to adulthood. Her son,
Maurice O'Connell, inherited Derrynane House. Her most famous daughter is
Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill
Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (also known as Eileen O'Connell, ) was a member of the Irish gentry and a poet. She was the main composer of '' Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire'', a traditional lament in Irish described (in its written form) as the grea ...
a fellow poet. Oral tradition tells of Máire Ní Dhuibh's pride, determination and wittiness, with conjecture that her grandson,
Daniel O'Connell
Daniel(I) O’Connell (; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Irelan ...
, inherited her intellectual and orating abilities. She is believed to have died around 1795.
References
1700s births
1790s deaths
Writers from County Kerry
Irish women poets
18th-century Irish poets
Date of birth unknown
Date of death unknown
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