Ó Doirnín, Peadar (c.1700–69), poet and hedgeschoolmaster, was probably born at Roskeagh in the parish of Faughart, north of Dundalk, Co. Louth. Little is known about him and much uncertainty and folklore surround his life. Both the date and place of his birth are contested. Ó Doirnín appears to have spent most of his life in Oriel (south-east Ulster), an area rich in Gaelic heritage, where he received his education in local hedge schools but may also have spent some time in Munster. Ó Fiaich (qv) notes that Ó Doirnín's mother was a protestant and he received part of his education from a protestant minister. Most of what is related about him comes from nineteenth-century accounts, in particular by Nioclás Ó Cearnaigh (qv), and is considered unreliable. Indeed, a number of poems attributed by Ó Cearnaigh to Ó Doirnín were probably composed by Ó Cearnaigh himself including ‘Cumha na máthara fán leanbh’ and ‘A Ghaeilge mhilis’. Four accounts of Ó Doirnín's life are extant: UCD Morris MS 17 ‘Memoir of Peter O'Dornin, the celebrated bard of Louth’, supposedly by Mathew Graham Moore but really by Ó Cearnaigh; RIA 24 L 25 ‘Sketches or notes on the life of O'Dornin’ by Ó Cearnaigh; MS 23 E 11 also by Ó Cearnaigh and NLI MS G 389 by Art Mac Bionaid (qv). Ó Doirnín bequeathed his manuscripts to Art Mac Bionaid's father who therefore considered himself an authority on Ó Doirnín. The account of Ó Doirnín by John O'Daly (qv) in Poets and Poetry of Munster (1849), based on information supplied by MacBionaid, asserted that the poet was born in Cashel, Co. Tipperary in 1682. This has been discounted by both Ó Buachalla and de Rís. Modern day commentators have tended to rely on Ó Doirnín's own poetry for information about himself.
Ó Doirnín was a hedgeschoolmaster in a number of schools in Louth and Armagh. One of those was at Forkhill, Co. Armagh, where he was believed to be in competition with Muiris Ó Gormáin (qv) and is said to have ‘enticed’ some of Ó Gormáin's students away to his own school. He is also said to have been in competition with Ó Gormáin for the attentions of two young women, Peggy O'Beirne and Rose O'Dornin. His poem ‘Suirí Mhuiris Uí Ghormáin’ mocked the standard of Ó Gormáin's English and his philandering habits. Ó Gormáin is said to have left for Dublin in embarrassment as a result. Reputed to have had an ‘amorous disposition’, Ó Doirnín also had a reputation as a philanderer. He married Rose Toner with whom he had two sons, Eoghan and Tomás.
Around thirty poems believed to have been composed by Ó Doirnín are still extant and provide a commentary on the political and day-to-day social situation of his time. Ó Buachalla remarks that Ó Doirnín's poetry displays an exact knowledge of the events at Culloden and a clear understanding of its implications. His political poems demonstrate individuality and a sense of realism in their attitude towards the Stuarts. Referring to Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, in the poem ‘Tá bearád i Londain’ Ó Doirnín states: ‘is murab é Mac Uí Mhuirí ní bhrisfí ar Chathal ann’; (‘were it not for Lord George Murray, Charles would not have been beaten there’). Folklore accounts state that he was active as a Whiteboy around 1740 and according to folklore recorded by Lorcán Ua Muireadhaigh in Omeath, Ó Doirnín was also an active Jacobite. Although the aisling pholaitiúil or political allegory was a popular genre in the eighteenth century, Ó Doirnín never composed one. Instead, he composed aislingÍ grá.
It is noteworthy that none of the extant poems consist of formal praise poems and laments for patrons or friends. Tarlach Ó Raifeartaigh (qv) considered ‘sensuousness’ to be the most distinctive trait of Ó Doirnín's songs. Both Ó Buachalla and de Rís agree that his love and drinking songs, including ‘Captain Fuiscí’, number amongst his best. Indeed, many of his songs combine both themes. His love poems include ‘Mná na hÉireann’, ‘M'Uilleagán Dubh O' and ‘Ur-chnoc chéin mhic cáinte’, his most famous love song, which tells of his love for a woman called Nuala. This song is often considered the most beautiful of all Irish love songs. Ó Doirnín also composed humorous songs such as ‘Eachtra an ghearráin bháin’.
Some of his work may be considered bawdy and takes the form of a conversation between the poet and a woman. More often than not it is the women in his songs who are responsible for the lewd comments.
A number of satires also figure among his works, two of which were on priests: ‘An dá sheán’ criticised his own parish priest Fr John Brannigan. The poem ‘An cléireach bán’, beginning ‘Tá sagart stuacach in áit na huaisle’; (‘An ill-tempered priest has taken the place of the gentry’), condemned Fr Terence Quinn, parish priest of Creggan, and claimed that his greed caused hardship to his parishioners. The satire ‘Eiriceach na gCeann’ on Seón Johnston of the Fews, has also been attributed to Ó Doirnín.
According to Ó Cearnaigh, Ó Doirnín was the character in question in the poem ‘Bardic contention between Mis [sic] Mary Linden and Peter O Dornin’ beginning ‘Ba chiúin an trá, bhí tulca a mbla’, which is extant in four manuscripts: RIA 24 L 25, RIA 24 B 13, RIA 23 N 33 and 23 O 47.
Ó Doirnín never recorded his own poetry in manuscript form but at least three prose manuscripts in his hand are extant: NLI MS G 190 (copy of Foras Feasa ar Éireann), Belfast Coláiste Maolmhaodhóig MS G and Maynooth MS B I.
Art Mac Cumhaigh (qv) wrote a lament for Ó Doirnín who died 3 April 1769 and is interred in Urney graveyard in Co. Louth, where a memorial was erected in 1969 to commemorate the second centenary of his death.