Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara
Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara (1715–1810) was an Irish schoolmaster of a hedge school, Jacobite propagandist, anti-hero in Irish folklore, and composer of poetry in both Munster Irish and in the Irish language outside Ireland. Life He was born into the Irish clan Mac Conmara at Cratloe (), County Clare (). According to the oral tradition, Donnchadh Ruadh left Ireland and studied abroad to enter the priesthood of the still illegal and underground Catholic Church in Ireland, but was expelled from the Irish College in Rome and then spent several years wandering in Catholic Europe. Following his return to Ireland through the port of Waterford (), the poet settled in the Sliabh gCua district between the Comeraghs () and Knockmealdown Mountains () of County Waterford, where he remains a well-known anti-hero in local Irish folklore. Around 1741, he was appointed assistant master of the illegal Catholic hedge school at Seskinane, near Touraneena (), County Waterford. He is said locally to have been highly talented at Gaelic games and to have once led his students to victory upon the pitch against a rival hurling team from a neighbouring district. He is said to have sailed for Newfoundland () around 1743. Donnchadh Ruadh