Donnchadh Mór was a member of the famed Ó Dálaigh family of poets. Donnchadh Mór was the second of six brothers, one of whom was Muireadhach Albanach, also a poet. Authorities O'Reilly and O'Curry considered that he was Abbot of Boyle Abbey, County Roscommon, Ireland where he is believed to have been buried.
Reputation
The annals of Clonmacnois descbribe him as "Chief in Ireland for poetry". He was styled the 'Irish Ovid' due to the quality of his verse. In recording his death, in 1244, the Annals of the Four Masters describes him as "a poet who never was and never will be surpassed".
Finvarra
Donnchadh Mór settled at Finnyvara in the Burren region of County Clare, Ireland. Today a hexagonal bick-built columnar monument stands outside Finavara on the coast by Pouldoody Bay as a monument to him, opposite the supposed ruined poetry school of the Ó Dálaigh's. The Ó Dálaighs occupied a rock seat nearby termed the 'Brehon's Chair' used for open air courts in ancient times and they may be buried in the mound below the monument. O'Donovan in a note to the Annals of the Four Masters states that according to tradition preserved in the north of the County Clare he was the head of the O'Dalys of Finnyvara in the north of Burrin where they still point out the site of his house and his monument. The Ó Dálaigh's of Finnyvara were hereditary poets to the Ó Lochlainn's of Burren.
Poems
Donnchadh Mór is known to have written about 30 poems. Donnchadh Mór's poems were listed in The History of the O'Dalys by Edmund Emmet O'Daly, published in 1937 by the Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor Company of New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
+ A Bardic Miscellany: Five Hundred Bardic poems from manuscripts in Irish and British libraries, edited by Damian McManus and Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh, Trinity Irish Studies, Dublin, 2010.
In the introduction to The Tribes of Ireland by Aonghus Ruadh na nAor Ó Dálaigh, the editors give the following family tree. Adhamh, a quo Corca Adhamh of County Westmeath | | Corc | | Fachtna | | Dalach, a quo Ua Dálaigh | | Gilla Coimhdheadh | | Tadhg ua Dálaigh | | Muireadhach Ua Dálaigh | | Dalach Ua Dálaigh | | Cú Connacht Ua Dálaigh, died 1139. | | Tadhg Doichleach Ua Dálaigh, died 1181. | | Aonghus Ó Dálaigh, the common ancestor of all the O'Dalys extant | |______________________________________________________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | Cearbhall Fionn Donnchadh Mór Cormac na Casbhairne Muireadhach Albanach Gilla na Naemh Tadhg | | | | | | | | | Ua Dálaigh Fionn Ua Dálaigh Ua Dálaigh of Duhallow of Finvarra of Breifne Co. Cork. Co. Clare and Dunsandle Co. Galway
Family Tree II
Donnchadh Mór mac Aonghus meic Tadhg Doichleach Ó Dálaigh of Finvarra, died 1244. | | Aonghus | | Donnchadh Ruadh | | Aonghus Ruadh, died 1350. | |___________________________________ | | | | Tadhg, d. 1367. Lochlainn, died 1367. | | | | Fearghal, chief poet Donn of Corcomroe, fl. 1420. | | Doighre | | Donn | | Mael Sechlainn | | John | | Tadhg | | Diarmuid | | Aedh of Finnvarra.
