John O'Dugan

(Seághan "mor" O Dubhagáin)

Died in Roscommon, 1372. His family were for several centuries hereditary historians to the O'Kellys of Ui Máine. His most important work is a compilation of verse, giving the names of the various tribes and territories of the Irish, and the various chiefs before the coming of the Normans. He devotes 152 lines to Meath, 354 to Ulster, 328 to Connacht, and only 56 to Leinster, leaving it evidently unfinished at his death. His contemporary, Giolla-na-naomh O Huidhrin (Heerin), completed it. This work throws more light upon ancient Irish names and territories than any other similar work. In his monumental "Cambrensis Eversus", Dr. Lynch Says that he could not find "any better source than this remarkable poem" concerning the chief Irish families before the coming of the English. His précis of it occupies pages 235-79 of the first volume of Father Matthew Kelly's edition. O'Dugan was the author of several other extant poems, all more or less in the nature of a memoria technica , valuable chiefly for their facts about the kings of Ireland and of the provinces. He also composed several rules for determining moveable feasts, etc.