Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín)

Comyn, Michael (Micheál Coimín) (c.1680–1760), prose writer and poet in Irish, was son of Patrick Óg Comyn, farmer of Kilcorcoran, Co. Clare, and Joanna Comyn (née Fitzgerald). Michael's grandfather lost a substantial freehold in five townlands of Kimacrehy parish during the Cromwellian confiscation, but his grandfather and father, both described as ‘gentlemen’, were still listed as ‘tituladoes’ in one townland in 1659. A farm at Kilcorcoran, which Patrick Óg Comyn leased from the earl of Thomond (1675), passed to Michael on his father's death (1708). Poems written by Comyn record a youthful attachment to Harriet Stackpoole, whom he either abducted or eloped with, but he failed to overcome the opposition of her father, Philip Stackpoole of Ballymulcashel House. In 1702 he married Elizabeth Creagh, a niece of Sir Michael Creagh (qv), lord mayor of Dublin 1688–9. The poems that can be ascribed to Comyn with certainty are of little importance and occur in few manuscripts, suggesting that they had a restricted circulation. However, the considerable popularity enjoyed by his romantic prose tales, ‘Eachtra Thoroilbh mhic Stairn’ and ‘Eachtra thriúir mhac Thoroilbh mhic Stairn’, is evident from the large number of surviving copies. Both tales were published in 1893 and the former was reprinted in 1923. These lengthy prose narratives have been described as proto-novels and make Comyn a figure of some importance in Irish literary history. However, his modern reputation chiefly rests on the late Ossianic lay ‘Laoi Oisín ar Thír na nÓg’ (1750?) which describes Oisín's journey to the land of youth, a work that was to influence W. B. Yeats (qv). As with the other poems attributed to Comyn, ‘Laoi Oisín’ would appear to have been little known during his lifetime, but it has been reprinted several times since the first edition appeared (1859). His authorship has been questioned but, while it must be acknowledged that the evidence is largely circumstantial, the attribution remains plausible. Comyn had contacts with other poets including Seon Ó hUaithnín, Aindrias Mac Cruitín (qv), Aindrias Mac Mathúna, Uilliam Buinneán and Tadhg Rua Ó Dubhdábhoireann, but he was distinguished from them in being a member of the established church. Although a verse he exchanged with Aindrias Mac Mathúna testifies to his desire to avoid political controversy, one Jacobite composition has nevertheless been ascribed to him. Similar political ambivalence is suggested by a tradition that he acted as official translator to the court when Seon Ó hUaithnín was charged with writing a seditious poem, and secured the defendant's release by moderating the sentiments in his composition. According to another tradition, Comyn's Irish-language manuscripts were destroyed by an unsympathetic son after his death (1760). He had at least four sons. Edmund, his heir, became a JP, and Michael, was a physician in Saint-Quentin, France.