Cormac Ó Comáin
Cormac Ó Comáin (aka Cormac Dall, Blind Cormac, Cormac Common) was an Irish seanchai, according to Joseph Cooper Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards.
Biography[edit]
Walker describes Cormac Dall as a celebrated Irish storyteller and bard, allegedly born in May 1703, at Woodstock, near Ballindangan, County Mayo. Walker remarks that, "His parents were poor and honest; remarkable for nothing but the innocence and simplicity of their lives". He was blinded by smallpox when about a year old, and as was the custom with blind children, was given the opportunity to earn a livelihood via music. He played harp for a little while, before he turned to reciting songs and stories he heard recited at the fireside of his father and neighbours. He became "a Fin-Sgealaighte...a man of talk or a tale teller" and, at events, would relate Irish legends and folktales. He also served as a guest-entertainer for the gentry, reciting genealogies, poems and songs. Walker goes on to say that:
"Endowed with a sweet voice and a good ear, his narrations were generally graced with the charms of melody.-(I say were generally graced, for at his age "nature sinks in years," and we speak of the man, with respect to his powers, as if actually a tenant of the grave.)-He did not ... chant his tales in an uninterrupted even-tone; the monotony of his modulation was frequently broken by cadences introduced with taste at the close of each stanza. "In rehearseing any of Ossian's poems, or any composition in verse ... he chants them pretty much in the manner of our Cathedral-service"
He was especially appreciated for his versions of the songs of Carolan and James Macpherson's Ossian poems.
Original works[edit]
He composed a few airs of quality, though they do not seem to have survived. His own lyrical compositions attracted praise:
"But it was in Poetry Cormac delighted to exercise his genius. He has composed several songs and elegies which have met with applause. As his Muse was generally awakened by the call of gratitude, his poetical productions are mostly panegyrical or elegiac; they extol the living, or lament the dead. Sometimes he indulged in satire, but not often, though endued with a rich vein of that dangerous gift."
Among those known by name are Lament for John Burke of Carrentryle (one of his best patrons)
Personal life[edit]
Common was married twice and had several children, but was a widower by 1796, living in Sorrelltown, near Dunmore, County Galway, with one of his married daughters. At that time he still earned his livelihood wandering about the country, led by a grandson or other lad, relating legendary tales and reciting genealogies. Walker described his moral character as "untainted", his person as "large and muscular". A portrait of Common by William Ousley of Dunmore was reproduced as an engraving in Walker's Memoirs ...
According to Donnell Treacy, Cormac died at the claimed age of 110.
He bore the same last name as a later Galway scribe, Pádhraic Ó Comáin.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards, Joseph Cooper Walker, Dublin, 1796.
External links[edit]
- Cormac Comon - Irish Biography
- Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards: Interspersed with Anecdotes Of, and Occasional Observations on the Music of Ireland. Also, an Historical and Descriptive Account of the Musical Instruments of the Ancient Irish. And an Appendix, ... By Joseph C. Walker, ...
- Irish surnames
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