The Ua Dalaigh family of bardic poets traced their ancestry to the legendary Dalach, a pupil of the famous Colman mac Leneni, founder of the church of Cloyne, County Cork, who died in 604. His descendants served as bardic poets for aristocratic courts and monasteries throughout Ireland and Scotland during the Middle Ages and as late as the eighteenth century (see Doan 1985b). These include the infamous Muiredach Albanach ("the Scotsman"), who killed a taxman and fled to various Irish, Anglo-Norman, and Scottish lords, becoming the ancestor of the MacMhuirich family of Scottish Gaelic poets (see O Cufv and Thomson). Another Ua Dalaigh poet, famous for his religious verse, was Donnchad Mor, alleged to have become abbot of Boyle in County Roscommon in later life (see McKenna 1922 and 1938 for editions of his poetry).
Among the most famous of the name were various thirteenth-century individuals called Cerball Ua Dalaigh, including Cerball Buide of Connacht (d. 1245), his brother Cerball Fionn, and his nephew Cerball Breifnech of Breifne (modern Co. Cavan). However, four other poets of the name contributed to the development of Cerball’s composite persona in Irish literary and folk tradition: Cerball, ollamh ("chief poet") of Corcomroe abbey (d. 1404); two County Wexford men called Cerball (probably father and son) who flourished between the 1590s and 1640s and whose names are found in Elizabethan fiants ("legal pardons") dating from 1597 and 1601; and possibly a late seventeenth-century Cerball who worked in Ulster circa 1680-1690.
This literary tradition begins with Bas Cerbaill agus Ferbhlaide ("The Death of Cerball and Ferbhlaid"), a late medieval romance concerning the tragic love and death of Cerball "son of Donnchad Mor" Ua Dalaigh, presumably the ollamh of Corcomroe, and Ferbhlaid, daughter of King Seamas "son of Turcall" of Scotland, based on a fifteenth-century Scottish King James. The tale exists in some twenty manuscripts, dating from 1600 to 1800, as well as in a later adaptation, Eachtra Abhlaighe… agus Chearbhaill…. ("The Adventure of Abhlach . . . and Cearbhall . . . "), probably composed in the mid- or late-seventeenth century. Both versions have been edited and translated (see Doan 1985a and 1990, and Nf Laoire 1986). Two of the poems attributed to Cerball in the original version of the romance are written in dan direach ("strict meter"), as one would expect from a professional poet, or file, during this period. However, three remaining poems attributed to Cerball are in oglachas (a looser metrical form). The poetry ascribed to Ferbhlaid is also in oglachas, appropriate for a medieval aristocratic Gaelic-speaking woman who, while educated, would not be expected to compose poetry in as strict a form as a professional male poet.
At least five poems attributed to the Wexford Cer-balls survive in Irish manuscripts, as well as the popular Irish amhran or folksong, "Eibhlfn (or Eilfonoir), a ruin" ("Eileen [or Eleanor], my love"), which purports to be an exchange between one of these poets, probably the younger, with Eleanor, daughter of Sir Murchadh Caomhanach (Morgan Kavanagh, d. 1643), inviting her to elope with him, which she accepts. This song and the tale accompanying it are among the best known in the Irish tradition, though the extant melody and text probably date from the late seventeenth, or early eighteenth, century (see Doan 1985c).
Like the poems found in Bas Cerbaill agus Fer-bhlaide, the poems ascribed to the Wexford Cerballs show considerable skill, although these are composed in oglachas rather than in dan direach meters. Many of these poems fall within the danta gradha ("love poetry") tradition, with the poet often suffering lovesickness, as in "Nf truagh galar acht gradh falaigh" ("There is no disease so pitiful as hidden love"). Another deals with the pleasures of the scholarly life ("Aoibhinn beatha an scolaire" – "Delightful is the life of a scholar"), including backgammon, harping, and making love to a beautiful woman. Probably the most famous is "The Quarrel of Echo and Cearbhall Ua Dalaigh" ("A mhac-alla dheas" – "Oh, fair echo"), a debate over the poet’s love for a woman named Cait, which he compares to Echo’s love for Narcissus, finally making Echo agree that Cait surpasses Narcissus in beauty. This is also the most technically proficient of the syllabic poems attributed to Cerball (see Doan 1990, 147-172, for editions and translations of these poems).
Already in the poetry of Padraigin Haicead (fl. c. 1620-1630), we find references to a "Cerball Ua Dalaigh" who has earned a reputation as a figure renowned in poetry and wisdom; famed for speech, music, and feats; cognizant of spells; and highly attractive to women (see Ni Cheallachain, 6-9). Padraigin’s perception anticipates the modern view of Cerball as lover, craftsman, trickster, and archetypal poet, which continues to this day in Irish folk tradition (see Doan 1981, 1982, 1983).
