Merriman, Brian (1747-1805)

Irish Gaelic poet. Born in Ennistymon, County Clare, Merriman became a schoolmaster and small farmer in Feakle, and later settled in Limerick as a mathematics teacher. His reputation rests on a single work, the 1,000-line mock-heroic epic Cúirt an Mheáin Oíche/The Midnight Court which he wrote in around 1786. An attack on Irish Catholic puritanism, the poem was the subject of fierce controversy between religious traditionalists and liberal intellectuals in post-independence Ireland.

Merriman's work was banned after Irish independence, but only in English translation (the Irish language was deemed incapable of being a corrupting influence). An English translation of Merriman's work by Frank O'Connor appeared in the Penguin Book of Irish Verse (1970). The Merriman Summer School has been held annually in Clare in August since 1967.