MacMhuirich bardic family

The MacMhuirich bardic family, known in Scottish Gaelic as Clann MacMhuirich and Clann Mhuirich, was a prominent family of bards and other professionals in 15th to 18th centuries. The family was centred in the Hebrides, and claimed descent from a 13th-century Irish bard who, according to legend, was exiled to Scotland. The family was at first chiefly employed by the Lords of the Isles as poets, lawyers, and physicians. With the fall of the Lordship of the Isles in the 15th century, the family was chiefly employed by the chiefs of the MacDonalds of Clanranald. Members of the family were also recorded as musicians in the early 16th century, and as clergymen possibly as early as the early 15th century.

The family claimed descent from Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh (fl.1200–1230). Muireadhach Albanach was a member of the eminent Ó Dálaigh bardic dynasty. This family is sometimes traced back to either of two men named Dálach: one is the legendary student of Abbot Colmán mac Lénéni of Cloyne; the other is another legendary figure, who was a descendant of the 8th-century Irish king Fergal mac Maíle Dúin, son of Maíle Fithraig. Muireadhach Albanach gained the nickname Albanach ("the Scot") in reference to the time he spent in Scotland. He supposedly spent 15 years in there, after being exiled for killing a steward of Domhnall Mór Ó Domhnaill (1207–1241), Lord of Tyrconell. While in Scotland, Muireadhach Albanach was employed as a bard by the Earls of Lennox, and it appears as if members of his family also settled in the Lennox, as a "Kathil Macmurchy" is recorded in the Lennox in the mid 13th century. In a lament that Muireadhach Albanach composed on the death of his wife, Maol Mheadha, he stated that she bore him 11 children.

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