Canadian Journal of Irish StudiesCanadian Association of Irish Studies

Donnacha Rua Mac Conmara (1715-1810)Author(s): Michael BoyleSource: The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, Ireland and Newfoundland /L'Irlande et la Terre Neuve (Fall, 2008), p. 66Published by: Canadian Journal of Irish StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25515723 .

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Michael BOYLE

Profiles of Irish Newfoundlanders

Donnacha Rua Mac Conmara (1715-1810)

Like many other poets of his time, the color of his hair added the descriptive word rua (red) to the personal

name. He was born in 1715 in the village

of Cradoe, County Clare, and it is said that he studied for

the priesthood in the Irish College in Salamanca or at the

Irish College in Rome (O'Flynn 112). Like many Catholic

Irish who departed for an education abroad, there is no

record of him obtaining a degree or joining a religious order. Dr George Sigerson took notice of Mac Conmara's

Latin epitaph to

Tadhg Gaelach O'Sullivan, a contemporary

of Mac Conmara who was educated on the continent

(O'Flannghaile 11). Mac Conmara's knowledge of Latin

language and literature (his poetry shows familiarity with

the classics and is often allegorical in style), also suggests

that he too was educated abroad, with Rome the location

most widely posited. Instead of returning home to Clare he became a hedge

school master teaching Latin in Waterford, mosdy in the

Slieve Gua mountains halfway between Dungarvan and

Clonmel. Apart from the time he spent in Newfoundland and

Europe he lived in Powers country between the Comeragh Mountains and the river Suir and he died in Killmacthomas

at the age of ninety-five (Byrne 37). He converted to

Protestantism in later life, as did many of his time, possibly

motivated by the financial benefits, but he converted back to

Catholicism before his death, even composing

a repentance

of his wayward life in GaeUc verse at an advanced age.

Having outlived all of his contemporaries, Mac Conmara

was the last of the famous Munster school of Irish language

poets and schoolteachers. It is said that he was very sociable

and enjoyed life to the fullest, and elements of his poetry betray

a lively, witty personality. He was married and had

children, but no records remain of this save for 18th and

19th century manuscript references.

Almost every school-age Irish student is aware of

Clarence Mangan's famous poem "The Fair Hills of Eire

O" about exile and devotion to the homeland; however, few

may know that this is a translation of a poem in Irish "Ban

Chnoic Eireann," which may well have been composed in

St. John's, Newfoundland by Donnacha Rua Mac Conmara.

It is speculated that Mac Conmara spent some time in

Newfoundland because of evidence in his other works.

Neither in Newfoundland or Ireland today is this great poet widely remembered. O hEadhra explains that there is

little evidence or documents to prove he was in the New

World, but he suggests a careful study of Mac Conmara's

poetry will show that he has written extensively about St.

John's (Baile Shean) and in "Eachtra Ghiolla an Amarain"

(The Adventure of Misfortune's Servant) he recounts his

experiences on an ill fated ribald voyage to Newfoundland

(6 hEadhra 118). Some suggest this poem may have been

a model for Merriman's "Cuirt an Mhean Oiche" (The

Midnight Court), which was written some thirty years later; there are certainly striking similarities between the two

(0'Flynnll2). Like many people in the Waterford area it seems Mac

Conmara went to Newfoundland or Talamh an Eisc (the

fishing grounds). In his writings he says he intended to go as a clerk, and he certainly had sufficient education, but it

appears he more likely followed the well-traveled route of the

Irish 'green men.' It is possible that he would have been the

first performance poet in North America as he often recited

his humorous bilingual poem in St. John's public houses to

British sailors and Irish alike (O'Grady 12). In the macaronic

poem, "Donnacha Ruadh i dTalamh an Eisc," he extols the

bravery of his English companions and the beauty of St.

John's while expressing his love of his own homeland and

mockery of the English sailors:

Newfoundland is a fine plantation, It will be my station until I die -

Mo chradh, go mb'fhearr liom bheith in Eirinn

Ag diol gairteiridhe na dul fan gcoill. (Donnachdh)

A forthcoming thesis on Donnacha's life and poetry is presendy

being done by Padraig O Liathain at Trinity College Dublin

and this work will shed more life on a neglected poet.

Works Cited:

Byrne, Cecil. "Two Irish Poets in the Wild Plantation." Essays on Canadian Writing 31 (Summer 1985): 35-51.

"Donnachdh Ruadh i dTalamh - an Eisc Ro Chan." Poem

pages, Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial

University (1996).

O hEadhra, Aodhan. Na Gael i dTalamh an Eisc. Baile Atha Cliath: Coisceim, 1998: 188.

O'Flannghaile, Tomas. Eachtra Ghioll an Amarain and Other Poems By Red Donough MacNamara. Dublin: Sealey, Byers and Walker, 1896:11.

O'Flynn, Criostoir. Irish Comic Poems. Indreabhan: Clo Iar

Cnonnachta, 1994.

O'Grady, Standish. Donnachadh Ruadh Mac Con-mara:A Slave

to Adversity. Dublin: O'Daley, 1853.

66 Profiles of Irish Newfoundlanders

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