De Bhál (de bhFál), Éamonn (Edward Wall) (1667/8–1763), poet, was probably a native of Couragh in the parish of Dungourney, some 10 km north-east of Midleton, Co. Cork – the district in which he spent most of his life. Nothing is known of his immediate family, but a hostile composition by Séamas de Barra (‘A Éamoinn a spéice is a bhacaigh bhuí an oilc’) suggests that his parents may have been from a humble social background. None the less, de Bhál was sufficiently educated to earn a living as a schoolmaster. He married, but his wife died about 1710 and it is not known whether he remarried or had any children.
De Bhál was a member of the literary circle known as the Blarney school of poetry, and his earliest datable work, composed around 1702, sympathised with Diarmaid mac Sheáin Bhuí Mac Cárthaigh (qv) on the death of his horse. He wrote two laments (‘Fochtaim ort an doiligh leat’ and ‘Níl taitneamh sa ngréin’) on the execution of James Cotter (qv) in 1720, but his œuvre does not display the fascination with contemporary politics that was shared by many of the Munster poets of the period. Rather, encomia for local members of the Old English gentry (Fitzgeralds, Powers, Barrys, Coppingers, Supples, and Uniackes), religious verse, and dialogues with fellow poets constitute the bulk of his work. Those whom he engaged in poetic dialogues included Seán na Ráithíneach Ó Murchadha (qv), Liam an Dúna Mac Cairteáin (qv), Seán ‘Clárach’ Mac Domhnaill (qv), and Piaras Mac Gearailt (qv). One exchange of verses with Mac Gearailt was prompted by an incident in which de Bhál was robbed by the highwayman ‘Captain’ James Freney (qv) while travelling to Dublin. In another exchange, de Bhál echoed Liam Mac Cairteáin's praise for Donough MacCarthy (d. 1726) and Cornelius O'Keeffe (1664–1739), the catholic bishops of Cork and Limerick respectively, but dissented from his commendation of Denis Moriarty (1653–1739), bishop of Ardfert, on the grounds that the Moriartys killed Gerald Fitzgerald (qv), 15th earl of Desmond, in 1583. De Bhál also composed a bitter denunciation (‘Is ciach's is doilbh liom’) of John Connor, an Augustinian priest who conformed to the established church in 1739.
De Bhál was already in his late eighties when he composed a lament for Séan Clárach Mac Domhnaill (d. 1754). He died on 20 February 1763 and was buried in Dungourney churchyard.