Ó Dálaigh, Muireadhach Albanach (1180–1250)

Irish poet, probably born in County Meath; one of the first of the learned bardic Ó Dálaigh family to rise to prominence. He was a student of bardic poetry and may have been educated in monastic schools. His intensely mournful poem on the death of his wife ‘M'anam do sgar riomsa a-raoir’, which opens with the line ‘I was robbed of my soul last night’, is one of the most celebrated in Irish literature.

After murdering a tax collector with an axe, Ó Dálaigh abandoned his home in County Sligo and fled to Scotland.