Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta
Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta was an Irish poet. He was the originator of a seventeenth and eighteenth century Irish language school of poets, centred on the Oirialla region of the south-east of the province of Ulster and north of Leinster. Mac Cuarta's work emerged from a region in which there was no previous strong poetic tradition, unlike in north-western Ulster, and inspired a number of followers such as Peadar Ó Doirnín and Art Mac Cumhaigh: the emergence of the work of Mac Cuarta and his followers may have been a conscious response to local pressures of anglicisation, and the collapse of the traditional Gaelic social order.
Older English translations of his works often use the English form of his name, James McCuairt, or occasionally James Courtney.
Background
Mac Cuarta was possibly born in Omeath in County Louth, although Kilkerley to the north-west of Dundalk is also mentioned as bearing links to his life; he appears to have spent most of his life moving around this area and the Boyne Valley. As his name suggests, he was either blind or had seriously impaired vision and, at a time when gentry patronage of the poetic class was on the wane, this placed more emphasis on his literary skills rather than the traditional poetic tools of flattery towards their patrons. He was, by all accounts, very sociable and among his friends were fellow musicians and poets Niall Óg Mac Mhurchaidh, Pádraig Mac Giolla Fhiondáin, and Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin.Works
His works display a close affiliation with the older literary traditions, as well as the influence of contemporary popular song and balladry. In the words of Nollaig Ó Muraíle, "Mac Cuarta's poetry reflects a familiarity with Irish literature and history, the classics, and the Bible."Political influences
His poems also bear a very strong resonance to the political turmoil of the period or, as Ó Muraíle put it, 'Much of Mac Cuarta's work echoes the political events of his time, such as the catastrophic battle of Aughrim —which inspired Tuireamh Shomhairle Mhic Dónaill —and the subsequent subjugation of his people by the English, who are condemned both as foreigners and heretics.' Tuireamh Mhurcha Cruis is about a Jacobite soldier, one of the first Normans to settle in Ireland.Among Séamas's patrons were chieftains of Gaelic and Norman origin, and he dedicated poems to, among others, Toirealach Ó Néill, Brian Mac Naois, Brian Mac Eoghain, Mac Airt Uí Néill, Baron Slane.
He lamented in particular the overthrow of the Ó Néill chiefs of the Fews in south Armagh, whose castle in Glasdrummond lay deserted at the time of his writing. However, despite his praise of these nobles, Séamas dismissed nobles who he believed did not resist the English sufficiently; instead, he promoted men without noble lineage but who resisted the English conquest.