Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/72

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O'Heney
66
O'Higgin

is mentioned in Lady Morgan's 'Wild Irish Girl.'

[Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland, Dublin, 1840.]

N. M.

O'HENEY, MATTHEW (d. 1206), Cistercian biographer and archbishop of Cashel, called in Irish Ua Heinni, was a monk of the Cistercian house of Holy Cross in what is now Tipperary. He afterwards became archbishop of Cashel, and was made papal legate for Ireland in 1192 (Ann. Inisfalense, ap. O'Conor, Rer. Hibern. Script. ii. 120). In the same year he held a great synod in Dublin, at which the Irish magnates attended (ib.) His name rarely appears except in official documents, usually undated, relating to the affairs of various Irish churches (Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin, i. 143, 145, ii. 28, 29. 198, Rolls Ser.; Register of St. Thomas, Dublin, pp. 308, 317, Rolls Ser.) In 1195 he is mentioned as one of the prelates who brought the body of Hugh de Lacy, first lord of Meath [q. v.], one of the conquerors of Ireland, to the abbey of Bective on the Boyne in Meath, for re-interment (Annals of Ireland in Chartularies of St. Mary's, Dublin, ii. 307). He is said to have founded many churches, and to have been an able man, a worker of miracles, and religious beyond his fellow-countrymen. Retiring to his old monastery of Holy Cross, he died there, as a humble Cistercian monk, in 1206 (ib. ii. 278; Annals of Loch Cé, i. 235, Rolls Ser.)

O'Heney wrote a life of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, letters to Popes Celestine III and Innocent III, and other tracts, none of which are known to be extant.

[In addition to the authorities cited in the text, see Hardy's Descriptive Catalogue of Brit. MSS. iii. 23; Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hibern. i. 5, 2nd ed.; C. de Visch's Biblioth. Cisterc. p. 104; Tanner's Bibliothcai, p. 392; Ware's Works, ed. Harris, i. 469, ii. 72; Brady's Episcopal Succession.]

A. M. C.-e.


O'HIGGIN, TEAGUE (d. 1617), Irish poet, known in Irish writings as Tadhg dall Ua hUiginn, the most famous of his family of hereditary poets, was son of Cairbre O'Higgin, and brother of Maelmuire O'Higgin, catholic archbishop of Tuam (State Papers, Eliz. clix. No. 44). He was born in Magh Nenda, the plain bt'tween the rivers Erne and Drobhais, on the southern boundary of Ulster, and was blind most of his life, whence his Irish sobriquet of 'dall.' His earliest extant poom was written before 1554, an address of fifty stanzas to Eoghan óg MacSuibhne na dtuath, urging him to make friends with Manns O'Donnell [q. v.] and Shane O'Neill [q. v.] He wrote, between 15660 and 1589, a poom of thirty-three stanzas, urging the fusion under Cucbonnacht Maguire of the tribes called, from their ancestor Colla DaChrioch, Sil Colla, and including Maguire, MacMahon, and O'Kelly, beginning 'Daoine saora siol gColla' ('Noble folk the seed of Colla'); In 1573 he addressed a verse panegyric on the O'Neills in fifty-two stanzas to Turlough Luineach O'Neill [q. v.], 'Imda sochar ag cloinn Neill' ('Many the privileges belonging to the children ot Niall'). In another poem of eighteen Quatrains, 'Lios greine as Emhain dUlltaibh' ('A sunny fort is an Emania to Ulstermen'), he praises Shane O'Neill's residence, comparing it to Emhain Macha, or Emania, the residence of the most ancient race of the kings of Ulster (Addit. MS. 29614 in Brit. Mus.) At Christmas 1577 he wrote a poem of seventy-seven stanzas describing a party at which he was a guest at Turlough Luineach O'Neill's house of Craoibhe at the mouth of the Ban, 'Nodhlaig do chuamar do'n chraoibh' ('At Christmas we were at the Craoibh') (Egerton MS. 111, in British Museum). Between 1670 and 1578 was composed his poem of sixty-eight stanzas in praise of Sir Shane MacOliver MacShane MacWilliam Burke, 'Ferainn cloidhim crioch Bhanba' ('Swordland, the realm of Ireland'), in which Burke's descent from Charlemagne is traced. Five texts of this poem are extant: in the British Museum (Egerton MS. 111), in Trinity College, Dublin (F.4.13). in the Royal Irish Academy (28. L. 17 and 23 N. 11), and one in Mr. S. H. O'Grady's collection. A poetical address to Richard MacOliver Burke of sixty stanzas, 'Mar ionghabail anma rig' ('Great circumspection to the name of king'), was written about 1580. It asserts that chiers right to be inaugurated Mac William, the Irish title corresponding to the marquisate of Clanricarde. After 1581 he wrote a poem of forty-two stanzas, 'Tanac oidhche go heas coilie' ('One night I came to Eascoille'), which describes a night which he spent in the house of Maelmora MacSuibhne in the north of Donegal. He was at Drumleene in the parish of Clonleigh, co. Donegal, in June 1588, and there wrote 'Maighen dioghla druim lighen' ('A field of vengeance is Drumleene'), a poem of forty-five stanzas, lamenting the battle about to take place between Sir Hugh O'Donnell and Turlough Luineach O'Neill, then encamped on the other side of the river Finn. He advises O'Donnell to go home and dismiss his clansmen. In 1587 he composed a feeling lament of thirty-seven stanzas for Cathal óg O'Connor Sligo, his patron, 'Derram cuntas a chathail' ('Let us balance our account, Cathal!'); and be-