Muirgheas mac Pháidín Ó Maolconaire, Gaelic

Gaels

The Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and northern Scotland and the Isle of Man....

-Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 scribe

Scribe

A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing...

, died 1543.

Muirgheas was a native of Cluain Plocáin (now Ballymulconry), parish of Kiltrustan, County Roscommon

County Roscommon

County Roscommon is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the town of Roscommon. Roscommon County Council is the local authority for the county...

. It lies close to an inlet of the river Shannon

River Shannon

The River Shannon is the longest river in Ireland at . It divides the west of Ireland from the east and south . County Clare, being west of the Shannon but part of the province of Munster, is the major exception...

, north of Strokestown

Strokestown

Strokestown, historically called Bellanamullia and Bellanamully , is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the junction of the N5 National primary route and the R368 regional road in the north of the county....

.

Ó Maolconaire wrote the Book of Fenagh in 1516/17, at Fenagh Abbey, County Leitrim

County Leitrim

County Leitrim is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the county...

. He prepared an abbreviated version in 1535, now BL Cotton Vespasian MS E II

Muirgheas was responsible for writing the vellum

Vellum

Vellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...

 manuscript known as Leabhar gabhála, or Leabhar Bhaile Uí Mhaoilchonaire do sgríobh Muirghios mac Paídín Uí Mhaoilchonaire as Liobhar na hUidhre. An incomplete version survives as RIA MS D iv 3

He has sometimes been confused with his great-grandson, Muiris mac Torna Ó Maolconaire

Muiris mac Torna Ó Maolconaire

Muiris mac Torna Ó Maolconaire, Irish scribe, historian and poet, died 1645.-Background:Muiris was a son of Torna Ó Maolconaire, and a native of Cluain Plocáin, County Roscommon. He may have owned land in the parish of Kiltrustan...

 (died 1645).

Family tree:An Sliocht Pháidín

Paidín mac Lochlainn meic Maelsechlainn Ó Maolconaire, d. 1506 (a quo Sliocht Pháidín)
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Lochlainn Muirgheas mac Pháidín Ó Maolconaire, d. 1543.
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Séan Ruadh, d. 1589. | |
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| Eóluis ?________________
Lochlainn | | |
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| Torna Moileachlain Fláithrí, Archbishop of Tuam

Archbishop of Tuam

The Archbishop of Tuam is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Roman Catholic Church.-History:...

, 1560-1629
Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire

Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire

Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, co-compiler and scribe of the Annals of the Four Masters, fl. 1620's-1640's.-Family background:Ó Maol Chonaire was a member of the Ó Maolconaire brehon family of north County Roscommon...

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Muiris, d. 1645.

Sources

• Muirgheas Ó Maolconaire of Cluain Plocáin: an early sixteenth-century Connacht scribe at work, Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, Studia Hibernica 35 (2008-09), pp.17-43.
• Muiris Ó Maolconaire, in Dictionary of Irish biography (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009)
• The Annals of the Four Masters: Irish history, kingship and society in the early seventeenth century, p.55, 91, 257, 262-3, Bernadette Cunningham, Four Courts Press, 2010. ISBN 978 1 84682 203 2.