Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna[1] is one of the four most prominent south Ulster and north Leinster poets in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
He has been described as an incisive ballad singing entertainer for a totally Irish-speaking community of poor people living at or below subsistence in the early 18th century.
[citation needed] Mac Giolla Ghunna was probably born in County Fermanagh and, having initially studied to be a Catholic priest, settled for a career as a rake-poet.
[2] It has been remarked about his poetry that 'of the handful of poems attributed to him, most are marked by a rare humanity, but none can match An Bonnán Buí (The Yellow Bittern) with its finely-judged blend of pathos and humour'.
The memory of Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna is celebrated annually in his homeland – Blacklion (Cavan) and Belcoo (Fermanagh).