Cathal Buí Country - Cavan

On the journey to Kiltyclogher last weekend, just outside Blacklion Co Cavan, I came across this sign which impressed me. A poet is remembered, and a poet in Irish at that. Of course Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna (c1680 - c1756) is remembered especially for his famous An Bonnán Buí where he laments in comic mock heroic terms the death of a little bird from thirst and taunts those who warn him that he himself will die of drink.

Thomas MacDonagh's translation of the poem is how most people came across Cathal Buí. McDonagh, like Seán MacDiarmada, was executed after the 1916 Rising. And then Francis Ledwidge referenced the Bonnán Buí (Yellow Bittern) in his Lament for Thomas MacDonagh.

There is a Féile Cathal Buí in Blacklion Cavan from the 24 to 28 June.

I'm spending most of today bagpacking for charity in Navan. Tomorrow also except for a few hours as an extra in a TnaG documentary.