# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Cobhthaigh, Dermot

Diarmait Ó Cobhthaigh in the ODNB.
​O'COBHTHAIGH, DERMOT (fl. 1584), Irish poet, belonged to a family of hereditary poets settled during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the barony of Rathconrath, co. Westmeath. He wrote a lament of 150 verses for his kinsman Uaithne, also a poet, who was murdered, with his wife, at Ballinlig, co. Westmeath, in 1556, which begins ‘Da néll orchra os iath Uisnigh’ (‘Two clouds of woe over the land of Uisneach’). He also wrote five theological poems: ‘Dion cloinne a nécc a nathar’ (‘Safeguard of children in the death of their father’), a poem of 160 verses; ‘Fiu a bheatha bás Tighearna’ (‘The cost of life the death of the Lord’), of 156 verses; ‘Mairg as aidhne anaghaidh breithimh’ (‘Alas! the pleader is facing the Judge’), of 148 verses; ‘Mairg nach taithigh go teagh riogh’ (‘Alas! that I did not go to the king's house’), of 156 verses; and ‘Deacair aidhneas earca riogh’ (‘A powerful argument the tributes of a king’), of 160 verses. Copies of all these are extant, and some are in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy.
Other members of the family whose works survive or who are mentioned in chronicles are:
An Clasach (d. 1415), a famous poet and man of learning.
Maeleachlainn (d. 1429), son of An Clasach, killed by Edmond Dalton, who had conquered his district.
Domhnall (d. 1446), another son of An Clasach, killed, with his two sons, on the island called Croinis in Lough Ennell, co. Westmeath, by Art O'Maelsheachlainn and the sons of Fiacha MacGeoghegan. He was famous as a soldier as well as a poet. One of his poems, of 168 verses, is extant: ‘Aire riot a mhic Mhurchadha’ (‘Be cautious, oh son of Murchadh!’). It urges the Leinstermen to resist the English.
Aedh (d. 1452), described by O'Clery as a learned poet, who kept a house of hospitality. He died of the plague at Fertullagh, co. Westmeath.
Thomas (d. 1474), ‘Murchadh the lame’ (d. 1478), both mentioned in the chronicles as ollavs.
Tadhg (fl. 1554), poet, son of another Aedh, wrote a poem of sixty-eight verses in praise of the Cross, beginning ‘Cran seoil na cruinne an chroch naomhtha’ (‘The Holy Cross is the mast of the world’); and a hundred verses on the death of Brian O'Connor Failghe. Both are extant. He was probably also the author of the poem in praise of Manus, son of Black Hugh O'Donnell, beginning ‘Cia re ccuirfinn séd suirghe’ (‘Who sends gifts of courtship’). It contains twenty stanzas, for each of which O'Donnell gave the poet a mare.
Uaithne (d. 1556), poet, son of William, was murdered at Ballinlig, co. Westmeath, in 1556. He wrote a poem of 156 verses in praise of James, earl of Desmond, beginning ‘Mó na iarla ainm Shémais’ (‘Greater than earl is the name of James’); and a theological one of 160 verses, beginning ‘Fada an cuimhne so ar chóir nDé’ (‘Long be this remembrance on the justice of God’).
Muircheartach (fl. 1586), poet, who wrote a poem on salvation, of 140 verses, beginning ‘Dlighidh liaigh leigheas a charaid’ (‘The right of a physician is the cure of his friend’); one of 148 verses on the death of Garrett Nugent, baron of Delvin, beginning ‘Mairg is daileamh don digh bhróin’ (‘Alas! that sorrow is attendant on drink’); another, on Christopher Nugent, fourteenth Baron Delvin [q. v.], of 184 verses, beginning ‘Geall re hiarlacht ainm barun’ (‘The name baron is the promise of an earldom’); and one of 124 verses on William Nugent, beginning ‘Do ghni clu áit oìghreachda’ (‘Place of ​inheritance gives reputation’). There are copies of these in the Royal Irish Academy.
[Annala Rioghachta Eireann, ed. O'Donovan, vols. iii. and iv.; Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society for 1820.]
N. M.