Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh Explained

Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh (c. 1540  - c. 1630)^[1] was an Irish poet.

Life and works

Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh was a member of a hereditary learned family based at Larne, County Antrim, who was bard for the O'Neills of Clannaboy. Known as O'Gnive in English, among his best known poems is "A Niocláis, nocht an gcláirsigh!". His known surviving poems include:

• A Niocláis, nocht an gcláirsigh!
• Beannacht ar anmain Éireann
• Cuimseach sin, a Fhearghail Óig
• Éireannaigh féin fionnLochlannaigh
• Mairg do-chuaidh re ceird ndúthchais
• Tairnig éigse fhuinn Gaoidheal
• Buaidhreadh cóighidh caoi Eanmhná

Thomas Kinsella stated that: "His poetry, with its close-down of all positive feeling, dates ... to the time of confiscations and plantations in the early seventeenth century". Two of Ó Gnímh's poems, After the Flight of the Earls and The Passing of the Poets, are featured on pages 162–164 of The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse, published in 1986.

A later member of the family, Eoin Ó Gnímh (fl. December 1699), preserved a number of manuscripts compiled or collected by Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh.

Further reading

• "Éireannaigh féin fionnLochlannaigh", Dioghluim Dána, ed. Lambert McKenna, Dublin, 1938, pp. 290–293
• "Tairnig éigse fhuinn Gaoidheal", Dioghluim Dána, ed. Lambert McKenna, Dublin, 1938, pp. 398–399
• "A Niocláis, nocht an gcláirsigh!", Irish Bardic Poetry, ed. Osborn Bergin, Dublin, 1970, pp. 112–114
• "Beannacht ar anmain Éireann", Irish Bardic Poetry, ed. Osborn Bergin, Dublin, 1970, pp. 115–117
• "A dhuine chuirios an crann", Irish Bardic Poetry, ed. Osborn Bergin, Dublin, 1970, 118-119
• "Mairg do-chuaidh re ceird ndúthchais", Irish Bardic Poetry, ed. Osborn Bergin, Dublin, 1970, pp. 120–123
• Irish Verse: An Anthology, ed. Bob Blaisdell, 2002, pp. 26–29

See also

• Eochaidh Ó hÉoghusa
• Mathghamhain Ó hIfearnáin

References

Sources

• Book: The New Oxford Book of Irish Verse . 400 . . Oxford University Press . 1986.
• Book: The Celebrated Antiquary . 196 . . . 1996.
• Book: A Bardic Miscellany: Five Hundred Bardic poems from manuscripts in Irish and British libraries . Damian McManus . Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh . Trinity Irish Studies . Dublin . 2010.

External links

• Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh at ricorso.net
• CELT - Corpus of Electronic Texts - Irish Bardic Poetry
• CELT - Corpus of Electronic Texts - Irish Texts: Bardic Poetry
• Standingstones.com - On a Blind Harper—I - Flatha Ó Gnímh (archived 2005)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh. Oxford Reference. 23 April 2019.