Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh

Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh (fl. 1603 – 1616), sometimes anglicised as Lewey O'Clery, was an Irish Gaelic poet and historian. He is best known today as the author of Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill, a biography of Red Hugh O'Donnell.

Life Born in Tír Conaill (modern-day County Donegal), Lughaidh was the cousin of renowned Gaelic historian Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and one of five sons of Maccon Ó Cléirigh, a court poet to the O'Donnells. The Ó Cléirighs had a long tradition as one of Gaelic Ireland's foremost learned families, and the Tír Conaill branch had served the O'Donnells for over two hundred years. Lughaidh and his brothers are the last generation of their sept to be included in the Ó Cléirigh genealogies of the 17th-century.

In the lead up to the Ulster Plantation, he was involved as a juror and commissioner in the land surveys in Donegal. Lughaidh participated in the Contention of the bards, an event which probably took place between 1616 and 1624. Of the thirty poems produced by the participants, four were reportedly written by Ó Cléirigh. The work was first edited and translated by Denis Murphy in 1895. A fuller Irish Texts Society edition by Fr. Paul Walsh was published in two volumes in 1948 and 1957.

Written between 1616 and 1627, it is a highly important source about O'Donnell's life and times. It is possible that Ó Cléirigh attended O'Donnell's inauguration and military expeditions, and he may have kept notes. His description of O'Donnell's last days and funeral is based on the recollections of the two friars both named Maurice Ultach. Sections of the Annals of the Four Masters which pertained to O'Donnell's life were adapted from Beatha. Ó Cléirigh lionises O'Donnell; he claims that Hugh McHugh Dubh submitted willingly to Hugh Roe, when it reality it took O'Donnell beheading followers to obtain a submission. This was not unusual as Irish scribes often took liberties to make their texts more agreeable to their patrons or the Church. As a result, Beatha has distorted historical interpretation. According to Paul Walsh, "O'Neill, if not eliminated, is certainly reduced in stature... if one were to read only the Life, [one could say] that O'Donnell and O'Neill were of equal importance". Beatha "is an immense panegyric of a young chief who had just expired in a foreign land, and it cannot be expected to be quite impartial, especially when dealing with Red Hugh's enemies." Ó Cléirigh's portrayal of Niall Garve would have been particularly biased.