Book Description

The first full-length biography of Mary O'Leary (Máire Bhuí Ní Laoire), one of the most celebrated Irish-language folk poets of the nineteenth century. She was one of the only oral poets of her generation to achieve name recognition after her death. She composed poems that were built to last - songs collected and preserved by folklorists that now occupy a significant place in the repertoires of contemporary traditional performers. The book contains new English-language translations of Mary O'Leary's entire poetic canon, including her best-known song, "The Battle of Keimaneigh" (Cath Chéim an Fhia), a stirring description of an armed clash in 1822 between militia troops and a secret society of Catholic tenant farmers known as the Whiteboys.