Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/O'Clery, Lughaidh
O'CLERY, LUGHAIDH (fl. 1609), Irish historian, son of Maccon, chief of the O'Clerys of Donegal, was ninth in descent from Cormac MacDiarmada O'Clerigh, an ollav of the civil and canon law, who migrated before 1382 to Donegal from Tirawley, co. Mayo, and whose descendants were devoted to literature. Lughaidh succeeded his father as chief of the sept in 1595. He took part in 1600 in the ‘Iomarbadh na bfiledh,’ or contention between the bards of the north and the south of Ireland, in four poems amounting to 1,520 verses. ‘A Thaidhg na tathaoir Torna’ (‘O Tadhg, revile not Torna’); ‘Do chuala ar thagrais a Thaidhg’ (‘I have heard all you have pleaded, O Tadhg’); ‘Na brosd meise a mheic Daire’ (‘Provoke me not, MacDaire’); ‘An ccluine me a mheic Daire’ (‘Do you hear me, O MacDaire?’), in answer to Tadhg MacDaire MacBruaidedh. His most interesting work is his ‘Life of Aodh Ruadh O'Donnell’ [see O'Donnell, Hugh Roe], which is not a mere chronicle, but a biography of much literary merit. It begins with the parentage, and ends with the death of Aodh Ruadh in Spain in 1602. O'Donnell's history, with its many adventures, is admirably told in literary but not pedantic Irish, and the composition is free from the archaic and sometimes stilted diction found in parts of the ‘Annals of the Four Masters.’ It was written down from his father's dictation by Cucoigcriche O'Clery [see below], whose original manuscript is in the Royal Irish Academy. A text and translation of it were made by Edward O'Reilly in 1820 (Irish Writers, p. 90), and an edition based upon these has been published, with an elaborate introduction, by the Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. The date of O'Clery's death is not known, but it is certain that he was not living in 1632.
The son, Cucoigcriche O'Clery (d. 1664), Irish chronicler, was chief of his family, and was born at Kilbarron, co. Donegal. He was one of the body of learned men who under the general direction of Michael O'Clery [q. v.] compiled the collection of chronicles known as the ‘Annals of the Four Masters.’ He made a copy of the ‘Leabhar Gabhala,’ one of the poems of O'Dubhagain and O'Huidhrin, and one of Irish genealogies now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. His Irish handwriting was clear, the characters somewhat rounder than those of Michael O'Clery. A facsimile of his writing is given in O'Curry's ‘Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History.’ He wrote ‘Ionmhuin an laoidh leaghthar sunn’ (‘Dear the lay which is read here’), a long poem for the Calbhach Ruadh O'Donnell, praising his love of learning and learned men, and the goodness of his wife; and ‘Mo Mhallacht ort a shaoghal’ (‘My curse on thee, O world!’), a longer poem addressed to Toirdhealbhach, son of Cathbarr O'Donnell. Both have been printed, with translations, by E. O'Curry (Lectures, p. 562). On 25 May 1632 an inquisition taken at Lifford, co. Donegal, shows that he held Coobeg and Donghill, in the barony of Boylagh and Banagh, co. Donegal, as a tenant at 8l. a year, from the Earl of Annandale. ‘Being a meere Irishman,’ he was dispossessed and his lands forfeited to the crown. He soon after migrated to Ballycroy, co. Mayo, taking his books with him. His will, written in Irish at Curr na heilte, co. Mayo, is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. He desires to be buried in the monastery of Borrisoole, and says, ‘I bequeath the property most dear to me that ever I possessed in this world—namely, my books—to my two sons, Dermot and John.’ He died in 1664.
[Annals of the Four Masters, O'Donovan's Introduction, Dublin, 1851; E. O'Reilly in Transactions of Iberno-Celtic Society, Dublin, 1820; Beatha Aodha Ruaidh Ui Domhnaill, ed. Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J., Dublin, 1893; Annala Rioghachta Eireann, Dublin, 1851; E. O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History, Dublin, 1873.]