Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh

Ó Cléirigh, Lughaidh (?1580-?1640), poet and historian, and member of the Donegal learned family. His father Maccon (d. 1595 in Thomond) was chief historian to Ó Domhnaill, and his brothers Cúchoigcríche [see Annals of the Four Masters] and Maccon Meirgeach were also poets. He is best known as the author of Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Uí Dhomhnaill, a heroic life of Red Hugh O'Donnell, completed some time before 1616. With Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha of Thomond, from whom he is said to have received instruction, he began the Contention of the Bards ( Iomarbhágh na bhFileadh), in which he challenged Mac Bruaideadha's assertions that the southern poets were better than their northern counterparts.