He was the originator of a seventeenth and eighteenth century Irish language school of poets, centred on the Oirialla region of the south-east of the province of Ulster and north of Leinster.
In the words of Nollaig Ó Muraíle, "Mac Cuarta's poetry reflects a familiarity with Irish literature and history, the classics (Greek and Latin), and the Bible.
"[3] His poems also bear a very strong resonance to the political turmoil of the period or, as Ó Muraíle put it, 'Much of Mac Cuarta's work echoes the political events of his time, such as the catastrophic battle of Aughrim (1691)—which inspired Tuireamh Shomhairle Mhic Dónaill (a lament for a Catholic leader who fell in that battle)—and the subsequent subjugation of his people by the English, who are condemned both as foreigners and heretics.
[3] He lamented in particular the overthrow of the Ó Néill chiefs of the Fews in south Armagh, whose castle in Glasdrummond lay deserted at the time of his writing.
Unlike the classic poetry of most of his contemporaries, Mac Cuarta's work displays a strong feeling for nature, a tendency which marked the Early Irish poets.