Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (c. 1743 – c. 1800) was an Irish noblewoman and poet, known for the lament she composed in the wake of her husband’s death. At age 23 she fell in love with Art Ó Laoghaire and eloped with him. They were married against the wishes of her family. Art had a long-running rivalry with the Sheriff of Cork Abraham Morris. Morris, a Protestant, would attempt to enforce the Penal Laws to the best of his ability, but Art, a Catholic nobleman, did his best to overcome them. Eventually Art was outlawed and murdered at Carraig an Ime. His white horse rode into Rathleigh with no rider and covered in blood. Eibhlín mounted the horse and rode to Carraig an Ime where she found her husband’s corpse. The poem she composed in the wake of her husband’s death, Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, has been described by Declan Kiberd as the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain during the eighteenth century.
