View source for Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire

{{Short description|Irish poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=August 2021}}
'''Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire''' (1774&ndash;c.1848) was an [[Irish people|Irish]] [[poet]] from [[County Cork]], Ireland.<ref name="welsh">{{cite book | first = Robert | last = Welsh | title = Oxford Concise Companion to Irish Literature | date = 1996 | chapter = Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire | chapter-url = https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100234825 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-280080-9}}</ref><ref name="dib">{{cite journal|first = Lesa | last = Ní Mhunghaile | title = Ní Laoghaire, Máire "Bhuí" | journal = Dictionary of Irish Biography | publisher = Royal Irish Academy | accessdate = 2 June 2023 | url = https://www.dib.ie/biography/ni-laoghaire-maire-bhui-a6189 | date = 2009 | doi = 10.3318/dib.006189.v1 }}</ref> Ní Laoghaire's works were composed in the [[Irish language]] and, delivered as part of an [[oral tradition]], covered cultural and political topics of early 19th century Ireland.<ref name="dib"/>
==Early life and family==
Ní Laoghaire was born in Túirín na nÉan in Uibh Laoghaire (Iveleary), near [[Ballingeary]], [[County Cork]].<ref name="welsh"/> She was from a family of five sons and three daughters who lived on her father's fifty acre farm.<ref name="dib"/> In 1792, she married Séamus de Búrca (Burke), a [[Skibbereen]] horsetrader. The couple had eight children, and by 1821 they had settled on a holding they purchased near Céim an Fhia/Keimaneigh.<ref name="dib"/> While they were known for their generosity, their fortunes had declined by 1847 and they were unable to pay rent increases applied by their landlord.<ref name="dib"/> At least two of their sons were arrested for membership of a secret agrarian organisation, and mounting debts led to their eviction. Ní Laoghaire died soon afterwards and was buried in [[Inchigeelagh]].<ref name="dib"/><ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=1208 | last1 = Breathnach| first1 = Diarmuid | last2 = Ní Mhurchú | first2 =Máire | publisher = Cló Iar-Chonnacht | website = ainm.ie | title = Ní Laoghaire, Máire 'Bhuí' (1774–c.1848) | language = Irish | accessdate = 4 September 2020}}</ref>
==Works==
Ní Laoghaire was illiterate in both English and Irish, and learned through the [[oral tradition]] in the [[ceilidh]] houses. Her poems sometimes allude to [[classical mythology]], as is often seen in the [[Munster Irish]] [[oral poetry]] of the era. Her songs and poems survived via the oral tradition of the area, as did compositions by her contemporaries such as [[Antoine Ó Raifteiri]].{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}
Her best-known composition is ''Cath Chéim an Fhia'' (The Battle of Keimaneigh), which provides an account of a fight between the local yeoman militia and the [[Whiteboys]] in 1822.<ref name="dib"/> A number of Ní Laoghaire's sons were involved in the movement to defend tenant-farmer land-rights, and had been involved in the fight.<ref name="dib"/>
In the 1930s, Father Donagh O'Donoghue compiled and published an Irish-language book of O'Leary's poetry titled "''Filiocht Mhaire Bhuidhe Ni Laoghaire''". It was first published in 1931, with a second printing in 1933 and finally in 1950. A later English translation, titled "The Poetry of Maura Bwee O'Leary", was published with input from Fr. Sean Sweeney of the [[Society of African Missions]] and Fr. Richard P. Burke of the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. A further book, ''Songs of An Irish Poet: The Mary O'Leary Story'', was published by Brian Brennan in 2007.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book | title = Bláth's Craobh na nÚdar: Amhráin Mháire Bhuí | oclc = 854503056 | first = Tríona | last = Ní Shíocháin | publisher = Coiscéim | date = 2012 | language = Irish }}
==References==
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[[Category:1774 births]]
[[Category:1848 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Irish-language poets]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish-language poets]]
[[Category:Writers from County Cork]]
[[Category:Irish women poets]]
[[Category:Irish poets]]
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