Life
1748-1784 [anglice Owen Roe O’Sullivan]; b. Meentogues, nr. Killarney,
Co. Kerry; ed. at bardic school in Faha, opened school at Gneevelguilla;
after an incident ‘nothing to his credit’, according to Dinneen,
he became a spailpín; tutor to Nagle family in Fermoy; misconduct
with Mrs Nagle;’ joined British navy and sailed under Vice-Admiral Rodney,
meeting and beating the French off Dominica in April 1782; "Rodney’s
Glory" [in English doggerel]; returned to England and served in army;
secured discharge by ulcerating his shin with spearwort; opened school
at Knocknagree Cross; wounded in drunken brawl with servant[s] of a Col.
Cronin, whom he had satirised, one of them knocking him on the head with a fire-iron; died of fever a few days after; buried
in Muckross Abbey; called Eoghan an Bhéil Bhinn (Owen of the Sweet
Mouth); collected poems ed. Fr. Pádraig Ó Duinnín,
including 19 aislingí and poems dealing with his own life, as well
as satires and poems in praise of women; said to have seduced girl on his death-bed and to have expired while writing
a poem (‘Sin é file go fann/Nuair thuiteann an peann as a
láimh [weak indeed is the poet/when the pen falls from his hand]’;
An tAth Pádraig Ua Duinnín [Dinneen] edited his works as
Amhráin Eoghain Ruaidh Uí Shúilleabháin
(Gaelic League 1901; rep. 1902, 1923); he is largely featured in Daniel
Corkery, The Hidden Ireland (1924). DIW OCIL
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References
John Montague, Faber Book of Irish Verse (1973), pp.161-64,
‘His Request’, trans. Joan Keefe, ‘Forge me a tool, my
Seamus, fit for the eart ... the handle, the whole to have/harmony like
a bell (a chara mo chléibh is a Shéamais ghreannmhair grháigh);
‘The Volatile Kerryman’ [a seductive dialogue with a girl [‘a
fortnight spent travelling far and wide with her, making up songs for
her, telling lies to her ... till the last golden sovereign I winkled
out of her’), version of Sean Ó Riada.
Anthologised in Poems of the Dispossessed, ed. O’Tuama, trans. Thomas Kinsella (1981), pp.58-9, ‘A chara mo chléibh [Seamus, light-hearted andloving friend of my breast]’; ‘Ceo Draíochta [A magic mist]’.
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Notes
Corkery on Eoghan Ruadh Ó Suilleabhain: ‘He is one of our
greatest lyric poets, far greater than at present we conceive - yet in
the catalogue of men Lecky would have found him written down as a farm
labourer, a spailpin, and would have rested on that description ... ‘
(p.109) [SEE Patrick Walsh, MA Diss., UUC 1993, p.72]; cites Rodney’s
Glory, ‘Now may prosperity attend/Brave Rodbey and his Irishmen/And
may he never want a friend/While he shall reign commander;/Success to
our Irish officers,/Seamen bold and jolly tars/Who like darling sons of
Mars/Take delight in the fight/And vindicate bold Erin’s right/And
die for Erin’s glory.’ The poet was brought to him and Rodney
offered him promotion. However the Irishman requested only to be set free
from service. An Irish officer, a Kerryman named McCarthy, answered for
the admiral – "Anything but that". Disgusted, the poet
turned away and muttered under his breath, "Imireaochaimid beart
eigin eile oraibh." McCarthy replied, "I’ll take care,
Sullivan, you will not." [&c.] (Daniel Corkery, in The Hidden
Ireland, 1957 edn., pp.199.)
Exceptionally, none of his poems in Irish Literature, ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington: University of America 1904).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)