[2] Little is known of Ó hÚigínn's early life, but Tadhg Dall was fostered at Tír Conaill with the ruling Uí Domnaill family, and Maol Muire may have gone there with his brother.

According to McGettigan,[2] "A later source states that in his youth Maol Muire was an accomplished poet and harpist and also something of a philosopher."

[2] He was on his way back from Rome when he died at the episcopal palace at Antwerp on 5 August 1590, and was buried in the Cathedral of Our Lady within the city.

One, on the uncertainty of life, begins its twelve verses: A fhir threbas in tulaig, (English: 'O man that ploughest the hillside').

Ó hÚigínn's poems were still known by poets and historians, and continued to be copied in manuscripts well into the 19th century.