(aka Aedh Buidh Mac an Bhaird or Hugh Ward; c.1593 – 8 November 1635), was an Irish Franciscan friar who was a noted poet, historian and hagiographer.
Among those he named were Oliver Hussy, Henry Hart, Tadhg O hUiginn and Aonghhus Mac Con Midhe.
[1] In 1607 he left Ireland for Spain, and in January 1612 he entered the Irish Franciscan college at Salamanca, followed by his younger brother, Fearghal, in 1615.
[2] Mac an Bhaird laid before his associates his plan for a comprehensive history of Ireland—civil and ecclesiastical—a Thesaurus Antiquitatum Hibernicarum, and how the work was to be carried out.
Sollerius styles him "Vir doctissimus ac hagiographus eximius", and says that Mac an Bhaird's arguments in proof of the Irish birthplace of St. Rumold are unanswerable.
At the time of his death, Mac an Bhaird had ready for publication several treatises which he intended as Prolegomena to his great work.
Mac an Bhaird wrote Latin hymns and epigrams with elegance; also many poems in Irish of great beauty and feeling.