Gillabride Mac Conmide

Gillabride Mac Conmide (Gilla Brighde Mac Conmidhe) was a bard of Ulster, known also as Albanach because of his visits to Scotland. Sigerson, in Bards of the Gael and Gall (1907), dates his two poems here to 1230 and 1260, and calls him Chief Bard of Ulster and friend of Brian O’Neill, who was killed at the battle of Down in 1260.

“The Harp that Ransomed” concerns the harp of the O’Briens, which he was sent to recover and could not; “The Exiled Head” laments the head of Brian O’Neill, sent to the English king. Both are given in Sigerson’s English versions.