Ó Súilleabháin, Eoghan Ruadh (1748–1784)

Irish Gaelic poet. He was born in Meentogues, near Killarney, County Kerry. His work followed Irish patriotic poetic traditions, epitomizing the last phase of native Irish vernacular poetry, and has been compared to that of his Scottish contemporary Robert Burns. W B Yeats's character ‘Red Hanrahan’ is based on him, as is ‘Owen MacCarthy’ in Thomas Flanagan's The Year of the French (1979).

During his life he taught in the banned Catholic (‘hedge’) schools, worked as an itinerant labourer, sailed under Admiral George Rodney in the West Indies, and served in the British army.