Máireg Béan Ó Conchubhair Fáilghe
Máireg Bean Ui Chonchubhair Fáilghe (died 1451) was an Irish noblewoman and arts patron.
Biography
A daughter of Tadc Ó Céarbhaill of Ely and Queen of the Kingdom of Uí Failghe (Offaly), her husband being An Calbach Mor Ó Conchubhair Fáilghe, one of the last Kings of Ui Failghe.
Máireg was famous in her day as a patron of bardic classes of Ireland. On 25 March 1433 she issued "a general invitation ... about the feast of Dasinchell ... at Killeigh, and [another] about the first festival of Mary in the autumn at Rathangen for the people who were not with her at Killeigh, so that she satisfied fully all the suppliants (poets, musicians and chroniclers, besides gamesters and poor men) of Ireland."
Her death in 1451 was greeted with sadness by those whom she patronised. The chronicler of the Annals of Connacht remarked that she was "the best woman of the Gaedil and the one who made the most causeways, churches, books, chalices and all articles useful for the service of a church ... she died of a cancer in the breast this year ... the darling of all the Leinster people" (do ec do galur cigí in hoc anno)." However, later in the same passage it is stated that she actually "died of a disease which is not fitting to mention with her, namely leprosy." This might be as a result of confusion in the original text, as her son, Feidlim, is also stated to have died in the same year.
She appears to have been buried in Killeigh, where her husband was buried after his death in 1458. She was survived by at least four children: Conn, who became king and reigned till 1474; Cáthaoir; two other sons who were captured with Cáthaoir in 1476 by Conn for rebellion; and at least one daughter.
References
- Bitel, Lisa M. (January 2004). "Women and the Church in Medieval Ireland, c. 1140-1540 (review)". The Catholic Historical Review (The Catholic University of America Press). ISSN 0008-8080.
- Kenny, Gillian (2007). Anglo-Irish and Gaelic Women in Ireland, c. 1170-1540. Dublin, Ireland; Portland, OR: Four Courts Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-1-85182-984-2.