UA DÁLAIGHminor expansion. Their submission to Richard II in
1395 and the short peace that followed proved to be
only a brief interruption of this growth. During the first
half of the fifteenth century, the Ua Conchobhair-
Fáilge made territorial gains in the region and exacted
black rent (protection money) from the Anglo-Irish of
western Meath (modern Co. Westmeath). However, by
the 1470s the lordship of the Ua Conchobhair-Fáilge
was in decline and came increasingly under the lord-
ship and control of the earls of Kildare. The English
plantation of Laois and Offaly in the mid-sixteenth
century saw the final collapse of the Ua Conchobhair-
Fáilge lordship.
KEITHA. WATERS
References and Further Reading
Ó Cléirigh, Cormac. “The Problem of Defence: A Regional
Case-Study.” In Law and Disorder in Thirteenth-Century
Ireland, edited by James Lydon, 25-56. Dublin: Four Courts
Press, 1997.
Ó Cléirigh, Cormac. “The O’Connor Faly Lordship of Offaly,
1395–1513.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy(C)
96 (1996): 87–102.
Otway-Ruthven, A. J. A History of Medieval Ireland. New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1980.
O’Byrne, Emmett. War, Politics and the Irish of Leinster,
1156–1660. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003.
See alsoAnglo-Norman Invasion; Bermingham;
Bruce, Edward; Richard II
UA DÁLAIGH
The Ua Dálaigh family of bardic poets traced their
ancestry to the legendary Dálach, a pupil of the famous
Colmán mac Lénéni, founder of the church of Cloyne,
County Cork, who died in 604. His descendants served
as bardic poets for aristocratic courts and monasteries
throughout Ireland and Scotland during the Middle
Ages and as late as the eighteenth century (see Doan
1985b). These include the infamous Muiredach
Albanach (“the Scotsman”), who killed a taxman and
fled to various Irish, Anglo-Norman, and Scottish
lords, becoming the ancestor of the MacMhuirich fam-
ily of Scottish Gaelic poets (see Ó Cuív and Thomson).
Another Ua Dálaigh poet, famous for his religious
verse, was Donnchad Mór, alleged to have become
abbot of Boyle in County Roscommon in later life (see
McKenna 1922 and 1938 for editions of his poetry).
Among the most famous of the name were various
thirteenth-century individuals called Cerball Ua
Dálaigh, including Cerball Buide of Connacht (d. 1245),
his brother Cerball Fionn, and his nephew Cerball
Bréifnech of Bréifne (modern Co. Cavan). However,
four other poets of the name contributed to the devel-
opment of Cerball’s composite persona in Irish literary
and folk tradition: Cerball, ollamh(“chief poet”) of
Corcomroe abbey (d. 1404); two County Wexford men
called Cerball (probably father and son) who flour-
ished between the 1590s and 1640s and whose names
are found in Elizabethan fiants(“legal pardons”) dating
from 1597 and 1601; and possibly a late seventeenth-
century Cerball who worked in Ulster circa
1680–1690.
This literary tradition begins with Bás Cerbaill agus
Ferbhlaide(“The Death of Cerball and Ferbhlaid”), a
late medieval romance concerning the tragic love and
death of Cerball “son of Donnchad Mór” Ua Dálaigh,
presumably the ollamhof Corcomroe, and Ferbhlaid,
daughter of King Séamas “son of Turcall” of Scotland,
based on a fifteenth-century Scottish King James. The
tale exists in some twenty manuscripts, dating from
1600 to 1800, as well as in a later adaptation, Eachtra
Abhlaighe... agus Chearbhaill.... (“The Adventure
of Abhlach... and Cearbhall... ”), probably com-
posed in the mid- or late-seventeenth century. Both
versions have been edited and translated (see Doan
1985a and 1990, and Ní Laoire 1986). Two of the
poems attributed to Cerball in the original version of
the romance are written in dán díreach (“strict meter”),
as one would expect from a professional poet, or file,
during this period. However, three remaining poems
attributed to Cerball are in ógláchas(a looser metrical
form). The poetry ascribed to Ferbhlaid is also in
ógláchas, appropriate for a medieval aristocratic Gaelic-
speaking woman who, while educated, would not be
expected to compose poetry in as strict a form as a
professional male poet.
At least five poems attributed to the Wexford Cer-
balls survive in Irish manuscripts, as well as the popular
Irishamhránor folksong, “Eibhlín (or Eilíonóir), a
rúin” (“Eileen [or Eleanor], my love”), which purports
to be an exchange between one of these poets, probably
the younger, with Eleanor, daughter of Sir Murchadh
Caomhánach (Morgan Kavanagh, d. 1643), inviting her
to elope with him, which she accepts. This song and
the tale accompanying it are among the best known in
the Irish tradition, though the extant melody and text
probably date from the late seventeenth, or early eigh-
teenth, century (see Doan 1985c).
Like the poems found in Bás Cerbaill agus Fer-
bhlaide, the poems ascribed to the Wexford Cerballs
show considerable skill, although these are composed
inógláchasrather than in dán díreachmeters. Many
of these poems fall within the dánta grádha(“love
poetry”) tradition, with the poet often suffering
lovesickness, as in “Ní truagh galar acht grádh falaigh”
(“There is no disease so pitiful as hidden love”).
Another deals with the pleasures of the scholarly life
(“Aoibhinn beatha an scoláire” – “Delightful is the life
of a scholar”), including backgammon, harping, and