Muireadhach Albanach

Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dalaigh ("Murdoch the Scotsman") was a Gaelic poet and crusader. His name and some textual evidence taken from his own poetry indicate that he was Scottish. In one of his poems, he wrote "Ceadaigh dhamhsa dul dom thír ... i nAlbain bhfeadhaigh bhféraigh" ("Let me go back to my country ... to festive grassy Scotland") [Text and translation in Wilson MacLeod, "Divided Gaels: Gaelic Cultural Identities in Scotland and Ireland, c. 1200-1650", (Oxford, 2004), p. 88.] However, the seventeenth century Irish document known as "The Annals of the Four Masters of Ireland", s.a. 1213, implies that he was Irish, and tells us that he was the ollamh (high poet) of Domhnall Ó Domhnaill (d. 1241) and fled from Ireland after killing King Domhnall's tax-collector with an axe. [The "Annals of the Four Masters", s.a. 1213.8-9, [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005C/text005.html text] and [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005C/text005.html translation] ; see also MacLeod, "op. cit.", pp. 85-6.] Nevertheless, it was in Scotland that Muireadhach made his name. He served as the court bard to the Mormaer of Lennox. The specific mormaer who patronized him is often thought to have been Ailín II (d. 1217), but as the mormaer is called "Mac Muireadhach", son of Muireadhach, it was almost certainly in fact his predecessor and father, Ailín I (d. c. 1200). [MacLeod, "op. cit.", p. 86; , Thomas Owen (ed.) Clancy"The Triumph Tree: Scotland's Earliest Poetry, 550–1350", (Edinburgh, 1998), p. 258.] Muireadhach Albanach is important for the cultural history of Scotland because he is the alleged founder of the family of hereditary Scottish bards known to history as the "Mac Mhuireadhaich" or "MacVurich" family. [MacQuarrie, "Scotland and the Crusades", (Edinburgh, 1997), p. 37.] Muireadhach, like his fellow Gaelic poet Gillebrìghde Albanach, went on the Fifth Crusade and travelled to Acre and Damietta (as well as other places, like Rome). In 1228 he was apparently allowed to re-enter Ireland. [MacQuarrie, "op. cit.", p. 39.]

Notes

References

* Clancy, Thomas Owen (ed.), "The Triumph Tree: Scotland's Earliest Poetry, 550–1350", (Edinburgh, 1998)
* MacLeod, Wilson, "Divided Gaels: Gaelic Cultural Identities in Scotland and Ireland, c. 1200-1650", (Oxford, 2004)
* MacQuarrie, Alan, "Scotland and the Crusades", (Edinburgh, 1997)

External links

* [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G100005C/text005.html "The Annals of the Four Masters of Ireland", s.a. 1213]
** [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005C/text005.html Translation]