[1] A native of Knock, County Mayo, Ó Muraíle attended National University of Ireland, Maynooth where he was a postgraduate student enrolled for a PhD.
Upon joining the Placenames Branch of the Ordnance Survey in late 1972, Ó Muraíle had already translated over one hundred pages, albeit from Eugene O'Curry's copy.
Access to the autograph of Leabhar na nGenealach however remained difficult; only on 28 August 1979, at University College Dublin's new home of Belfield, was he able to begin transcription of the original, which he finished on 10 September 1981.
Early in 1998, Ó Muraíle was approached by fellow Mayoman, Éamonn de Búrca, with an offer to publish his edition of Leabhar na nGenealach.
It remains, according to a review the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Ó Muraíle's "significant [contribution to] Irish scholarship".