Brighid Nic Gearailt

Brighid Nic Gearailt (c.1589–between 1661 and 1682) was an Irish poet and noblewoman.

Biography

Brighid Nic Gearailt, also known as Brighid Chill Dara (Brighid of Kildare), was the daughter of the 12th Earl of Kildare Henry FitzGerald and Lady Frances Howard, daughter of the Earl of Nottingham. When her father died in 1597 she was sent to live with her grandmother, Mabel Browne, Countess of Kildare, in Maynooth. She went on to marry Ruairí Ó Domhnaill, Earl of Tír Chonaill at some point after 1603 when she was around fourteen. Her son, his heir Aodh was born in 1606 in Maynooth.

Brighid was pregnant when her husband fled the country in the Flight of the Earls with his son. There is evidence that her husband tried to have her join him in Europe but that the English authorities prevented it. Brighid went to England where their daughter Mary Ní Dhomhnaill was born. Rory died in Rome on 12 August 1608. Mary was placed under the patronage of the King and Brighid was sent back to Ireland. She later married Nicholas Barnewall, 1st Viscount Barnewall from Turvey, County Dublin. They had nine children.

She wrote in Irish, but only one of her poems has survived, a work in elegant classical style from about 1607.

References and sources

Links

Irish poetry

Irish syllabic poetry