Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Bruadair, David
O'BRUDAIR, DAVID (fl. 1650–1694), Irish poet, was born in Limerick, and had already begun to write verses in 1650. He knew little English, but was learned in Irish literature and history, and wrote the difficult metre known as Dan direch correctly. He was a Jacobite, and warmly attached to the old families of Munster. He detested the English nation and language and the protestant religion. His writings supply the best existing evidence of the feelings of the Irish-speaking gentry and men of letters in Munster in the latter half of the seventeenth century. Nearly all his poems refer to events of his own time, and are of a high order of literary merit. Large fragments have been printed and translated by Standish Hayes O'Grady in the ‘Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts’ in the British Museum, and some small extracts by John O'Daly in his edition of Ormonde's ‘Panygyric.’ Over twenty of his poems are extant, and their approximate chronological order is: (1) of fifty stanzas, about 1652, ‘Crecht do dhail me am arrthach galair’ (‘A wound that has reduced me to the condition of a vessel of disease’), on the laying down of their arms by the Irish. (2) Epithalamium, in prose and verse, on the marriage of Oliver Stephen to Eleanora, daughter of John FitzRedmond Burke of Cahirmoyle, co. Limerick, beginning ‘Cuirfed cluain ar chrobaing ghelghall’ (‘Upon a couple of white English I will attempt a bit of cajolery’), written in December 1674; he had himself attended the wedding, having heard of it when near Youghal. (3) A political poem on Ireland's ills from 1641 to 1684, of twenty-six stanzas and a ceangal or summary. (4) Advice to a trooper named James O'Eichthighern, going to serve under Tyrconnel, full of scorn for the English, written on 13 Oct. 1686, and beginning ‘A thruipfhir mas musgailt o'n mbaile t'áilgeas’ (‘Oh trooper, if thy desire be to rouse out from home!’); this was perhaps the most popular of his poems. (5) ‘Caithréim an dara King Sémus’ (‘Triumphs of the second King James’), written in October 1686. (6) Address to John Keating, chief justice of the common pleas in Ireland in 1688. (7) On the taking of their horses and arms from the protestants, beginning ‘Ináit an mhagaidhse i naitreabaibh gall do bha’ (‘In place of the derisive mirth which prevailed in the homes of protestants’), written 26 Feb. 1688. (8) ‘Na dronga sin d'iompuig cúl re creasaibh Eorpa’ (‘Those people that have turned their back on all the rest of Europe’); in praise of James II and dispraise of William III, written on 24 Dec. 1688. (9) Address of welcome to Sir James Cotter, M.P., on his return from England. (10) Answer to a poem in praise of James, duke of Ormonde, entitled ‘Freagra Dhaibhi ui Bruadair ar an láinbhréig sin’ (‘Answer of David O'Bruadair to that out-and-out lie’). (11) On Sarsfield's destruction of the siege-train brought against Limerick at Ballineety, composed for the Earl of Lucan at the time, 1690, beginning ‘A rí na cruinne dorighne isi is gach ní uirre ata dénta’ (‘Oh king of the globe that madest it and all things on it that are created !’); the poem is of eighteen stanzas and a ceangal. One of the two copies in the British Museum is a transcript of the poet's original manuscript (Add. MS. 29614, fol. 43b). (12) ‘Longar langar Eirenn’ (‘Ireland's hurly-burly’), a poem of forty stanzas and a ceangal, written in 1691. The writer laments the dissensions of the Irish, and praises Sarsfield's party. The ceangal declares the poet's disappointment and poverty. (13) Short poem on the exile of the native gentry after the siege of Limerick. (14) Short poem ridiculing those who, to be in the fashion, tried to speak English, ‘Níchanaid glór acht gósta gairbhbhérla’ (‘They utter not a sound but the mere ghost of rough English’). (15) On people who had become protestants after the surrender of Limerick, ‘Gidh ainbfiosach feannaire nár fhiar a ghlún’ (‘How much soever this or that extortioner that has not bent his knee’), written in October 1692. (16) A lament of forty-two verses for the loss of the poet's ancient patrons among the gentry, and the exaltation of churls in their place, written on 1 Nov. 1692, and beginning ‘Mithigh soichéim go siol gCarrthaig’ (‘Time it is to take a pleasant journey to the MacCarthys’). (17) A wish for a second Brian Boroimhe [see Brian, 926–1014], ‘Is mairg nach fiadaid triatha chloinne Eibhir: Aithris ar riaghail Bhriain mhic Chinnéide’ (‘Woe is me that the leaders of the children of Eber cannot reproduce the rule of Brian, son of Cenneite!’). (18) Address to our Lady, ‘Eist m'osnadh a Mhuire mhór’ (‘Hear my groaning, oh great Mary!’), of twenty-one stanzas and a ceangal. (19) Epithalamium for the marriage of Dominic Roche and Una Bourke of Cahirmoyle, in which the poet states that, much as he loves good drink, he is obliged to pass it by when a previous conversation in English is necessary, so little has he the power ‘mo theanga do chuibhriughadh dochum an ghaillbhearla do labhairt’ (‘to fetter my tongue towards speaking the foreign language’). (20) Address to Ireland, under the name of ‘Síle ní Chorbáin,’ as if she were a lady who had married and left off being bountiful to the poets. (21) A poem on the passion, in twenty-four verses, ‘Adhraim tha a thaidhbhse ar grú!’ (‘I adore thee, oh price of our blood!’) (22) A longer poem on the same subject, ‘Go brath a mheic rug Muire miorbhuileach’ (‘For ever is the Son that Mary miraculously bore’). (23) ‘Do bhi duine eigin roimh an ré si’ (‘There was a certain man before this time’).
He made a transcript of the ‘Leabhar Irse’ of the literary family of O'Maolconaire, which is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.
[S. H. O'Grady's Catalogue of the Irish MSS. in the British Museum, in which large parts of several poems are printed; Manuscripts in the British Museum (Addit. 29614, written by John O'Murchadha of Raheenagh, co. Cork, born in 1700, contains many of these poems; Egerton 154 contains others); O'Reilly in the Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society, 1820; O'Daly's Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry, Dublin, 1849.]