Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin (1766-1837), Irish Scribe, Scholar, Teacher, Patrons Henry J. Heard, Vicar General of the Church of Ireland Diocese of Ross. Heard commissioned copies of Fenian prose tales. Other patron Cork banker, James Roche. In 1824 the family moved to Murragh, near Bandon where Mícheál Óg took charge of a school. Whilst in the Bandon area he received several commissions for transcriptions.
Exhibition at the Royal irish Academy:
Mícheál Óg Ó Longáin (1766-1837), orphaned at the age of eight, ‘gan chuid, gan charaid’ (without family or friends), spent two years in East Carbery where he attended school; his schooling was interrupted to herd cows and carry out other farm tasks. Coming from a scribal tradition, he considered farm labouring beneath him and he returned to a hedge school at eighteen, studying mathematics and Latin. Mícheál Óg’s earliest scribal work consisted of verse compiled for his own use when he was nineteen and is held by Maynooth University Library. He often worked at the house of Mícheál Ó Caoimh, poet and scribe, who described him as ‘A low-sized tawny fierce churl full of merriment, who leaps gracefully over the fence … who writes Irish perfectly
He had begun to work for patrons whose first language was English, one of whom was Henry J. Heard, Vicar General of the Church of Ireland Diocese of Ross. Heard commissioned copies of Fenian prose tales. Other patron Cork banker, James Roche.
By 1823 the family was destitute and Ó Longáin’s sight was failing. In 1824 the family moved to Murragh, near Bandon where Mícheál Óg took charge of a school. Whilst in the Bandon area he received several commissions for transcriptions.
Royal Irish Academy:
https://www.ria.ie/scribing-ireland-o-longain-family-and-royal-irish-academy
Phoenitic version of Our Father in Irish, Murragh: https://durrushistory.com/2014/03/10/phonetic-rendering-of-apostles-creed-in-irish-murragh-bandon-west-cork-1779-church-of-ireland-records/
1847, Irish Speaking Among Protestants in the Bandon Valley, West Cork.
https://durrushistory.com/2017/11/27/1847-irish-speakingamong-protestants-in-the-bandon-valley/
West Cork History 