Life
1757-1643 [O’Clery, Ó Cleirigh, Ó
Clerigh; var. c.1645] b. Donegal 1575, third cousin of Cú Choigríche, bapt. Tadhg and
known as ‘Tadhg an tSléibhe, member of learned family to O’Donnells,
taking the name Mícheál on joining the Franciscan Order; ed. East Munster; Louvain; Franciscan lay brother, known as Poor Brother Michael; sent to
Ireland to collect MS materials for the Acta, c.1620 [DNB; DIW
c.1627-1642] on advice of Fr. Hugh Ward; consulted An Leabhar Breac at Franciscan convent nr. Duniry, 1629; compiled with assistance of Cúchoigríche
Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maolchonaire, and Cúchoigcríche
Ó Duibhgeannáin the Annála Rióghachta Eireann
and thereby became known as the “Four Masters”, a term coined
by John Colgan in the Introduction of Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae
(1645) - in which, however, the text was not included; produced Martyrologium
Sanctorum Hiberniae (Martyrology of Donegal); Mícheál
Ó Cléirigh commenced work on the Annals, 22 Jan. 1932 and
completed in 1636, proceeding under protection of Ferghal Ó Gadhra
(O’Gara), Lord of Magh Uí Ghadhra (Moy Gara and Coolavin), Sligo and Roscommon and MP in the Irish House of Commons; two copies made, one for Louvain
and the other for Ó Gadhra, to whom the work was dedicated; Ó
Cléirigh also compiled a descriptive king-list, ‘Réim
Ríoghraidhe’, ed. and copied Leabhar Gábhala
(Book of Invasions), and a lexicon of difficult words, Sanasán
or Foclóir (Louvain 1643); ‘For The Glory of God and
the Honour of Erin’ is a phrase in the celebrated dedication of the
Four Masters to Ó Gadhra; RIA copy of ‘Annals of the Four
Masters’, MS. c iii 3. RR CAB DNB DIW FDA OCIL
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Works
Annála Rióghachta Eireann; trans. by O’Donovan
as The Annals of the Four Masters, 6 vols. (Dublin 1848-51); Michael
O’Clerigh, ‘Foclóir nó sanasan nua’, ed.
A. W. K. Miller, in Revue Celtique 4 (1879-80), pp.349-428, 5 (1881-83),
pp.1-69; The Martyrology of Donegal, a calendar of the saints of Ireland,
eds., J. H. Todd & W. Reeves (Dublin 1864); et al. Genealogiae
regum et sanctorum Hiberniae, ed. P. Walsh (Maynooth: St. Patrick’s
Coll. Record Soc., 1918). Also The Four Masters (rep. 1975),
327pp. [paper reissue].
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Criticism
Brendan Jennings, Michael Ó Cleirigh, chief of the Four Masters,
and his associates (Talbot 1936).
Jennings, ‘The Irish Franciscans in Prague’, in Studies 28 (1939), pp.210-222.
R. J. Kelly, ‘The irish Franciscans in Prague’, 1629-1786, their literary labours’, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 52 (1922), pp.169-174.
Benignus Millet, The Irish Franciscans 1651-1665 (Roma: Gregorian UP 1964).
Benignus Millet, ‘Survival and reorganization’, in A history of irish Catholicism, ed. PJ Corish, Vol. 3., chp. 7 (Dublin/Sydney: Gill 1968).
John Messingham, Florilingium insulae sanctorum seu vitae et actae sanctorum Hiberniae, quibus accesserunt non vulgaria monumenta (Parisiis 1624).
Desmond Ryan, The Sword of Light: From the Four Masters to Douglas Hyde 1638-1938 (1939).
Joseph Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (Amsterdam
1986), pp. 310, 478.
Most Rev John Healy, DD, Archb. of Tuam, The Four Masters [paper prev. read as lect. to Maynooth students in aula Maxima] (no title-page; 16pp.) [LIB HB, pamphlet.]
R. Ward & R. Ward, ed., Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (1988), pp.217-18).
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography compiled with others ‘The Royal List’ of Irish kings and their pedigrees, 1624-30; The Book of Invasions [ed.]; a digest of Annals of Kingdom of Ireland, or Annals of the Four Masters (1632-36); and Martyrologium Sanctorum Hiberniae (1636)
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1 selects Annála Rióghachta Eireann, 259-61. See also Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), p.479, Cleiri, or Cleirigh, Michael. NOTE, [CAB d. c.1645].
Belfast Public Library holds B[rendan] Jenning, Micheál Ó Cléirigh (1936), biog.
‘[T]he closest parallel to the Annals of the Four masters is the recent history of Arabia’.
(W. L. Renwick, ed., Spenser’s View of the Present State of Ireland,
Commentary, p.184.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)