Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacCurtin, Andrew
MACCURTIN, ANDREW (in Irish MacCruitin) (d. 1749), Irish poet, was born at Maghglas, in the parish of Kirmorry, co. Ciare. His parents had a small estate there, and belonged to a famous literary clan of Thomond. Cenllach MacCurtin, ollamh [i.e. chronicler] of Thomond. who died in 1376; Giolladuibin MacCurtin, ollamh of Thomond, and harper, who died in l404; Seancha MacCurtin, ollamh of Thomond, who died in 1434: and Geonann MacCurtin, the best student of history in his time in the south of Ireland, who died in 1436, were all of their family. Andrew became a schoolmaster in his native parish, and now and then made journeys through the country, reciting poems and studying antiquities. He was hereditary ollamh to the O'Briens, and was a great authority on the pedigrees of the families of Munster, many of which he recorded. Edward O'Brien of Ennistymon and Sorley MacDonnell of Kilkee were his chief patrons. Two of his poems had a wide repute in Clare, and are still remembered where Irish is spoken there. One, written about 1720, is in praise of Sorley MacDonnell and his wife Isabel. It has interludes of recitation in prose, and tells how the bard had left their hospitable house in dudgeon, how ill he fared, and how he longed to return, how ragged was his coat and meagre his fare, and nevertheless how he hated mere wealth, loathed the English language, and despised those who thought it fashionable to speak 'the Saxon jargon.' The other is on address to a fairy chief, Donn na Daibhche, whose service the poet wishes to enter (Egerton MMS. 150, 209). His minor poems are 'Elegy on the Death of Sir Donogh Mac Conor O'Brien,' written in 1717 (ib. 209); another elegy (ib. 160); 'Is truagh ho'm do bhas a bhoill' ('Alas, my limb, that thou perishest thus away') (ib. 161); a Jacobite song (ib. 160); on the Irish language, 'Is milis an teangra an ghaoidbilge' (ib. 158). An elegy on William Bingham is erroneously attributed to him (ib. 110). He also, like most of the Irish poets of his day, acted as scribe, and in 1703 wrote a complete copy of Dr. Keating's [q. v.] 'Tri baorgaoitbe an bhais' (O'Daily, Poets of Munster, p. 36, and O'Grady, Cat. of Irish MSS. in Brit. Mus.); in 1716 for Tadg, chief of the MacNamaras, a copy of the 'Cathreim Thoirdhealbhaigh of Seaghan Mac Ruadri MacCraith' (H.1.18, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin), and in 1720 of the 'Life of St. Senan of Inniscatheigh' (O'Curry, p. 339). He wrote an excellent Irish hand, and was an accomplished Gaelic scholar. He died in 1749, and was buried in his family burying-place in the churchyard of Kilfarboy, near Milltown Malbay in Clare.
[Egerton MS. 209, in Brit. Mus.; O'Looney's Danta Chlainne Domhnaill, 1863; O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Irish History, 1873; O'Donovan's Annals Rioghochta Eireann, vol. iv.; E. O'Reilly in Transactions of the IberngCeltic Society, 1820; Journal of Proceedings of Royal Soc. of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1891; S. H. O'Grady's Cat. of Irish MSS. in Brit. Mus. 1892.]