Micheál Mac Suibhne and his brother Toirdhealbhach are said to have moved to the parish of Ballinakill, between Letterfrack and Clifden, where the poet was employed as a blacksmith by an Anglo-Irish landlord named Steward.
[4] In 1846, James Hardiman wrote of him: "In this district (Doon, Omey Island, Clifden) there lately lived a neglected poetical genius, whose name was Michael Mac Sweeney, who, though held in high repute by his countrymen, was suffered to die in poverty; but this, it is said, often occurs in half-civilized communities, where pride and ignorance are generally prevalent.
Many of these have been collected by the Editor; and if space shall permit, one or more of the most popular will be inserted in the Additional Notes, as a specimen of modern Irish versification, and of those compositions which afford so much social pleasure to the good people of Iar-Connacht."
In the Additional Notes to Iar or West Connacht (1846),[5] Hardiman included the full version of Abhrán an Phúca, the Banais Pheigi Ní Eaghra ("The Connemara Wedding"), and Eóghain Cóir by Mac Suibhne.
Following the Irish War of Independence, Professor Tomas Ó Maille collected, edited, and published all of Micheál Mac Suibhne's poems in 1934.