Ua Úathgaile, Dublittir

Ua Úathgaile, Dublittir (fl. c.1080–1120), author and scholar, was associated with the church of Killeshin, Co. Laois. He belonged to the Uí Bairrche. The medieval Irish genealogies preserve the name of Úathgal son of Sóergal, progenitor of the Uí Úathgaile and likely to have been Dublittir's grandfather. In the late eleventh century the Uí Úathgaile had close connections with the church at Killeshin, in the vicinity of which they most likely resided. The Annals of the Four Masters (1082) record the death of Conchobar Ua Úathgaile, fer léigind (lector or chief scholar) of Killeshin and one of the learned seniors (sruithshenóir) of west Leinster. Sources other than the Annals would suggest that Dublittir probably succeeded Conchobar as fer léigind of Killeshin, although he has been identified with Conchobar. The final page of the Book of Durrow preserves a memorandum (óentu) between Killeshin and the monastery of Durrow, Co. Offaly. The transaction involved the transfer of land or of a church (reclés) by Killeshin to Durrow; on the evidence of the obits of the witnesses it appears to date from the late eleventh or early twelfth century. Dublittir, described as fer léigind, and his brother or cousin Dúnchad are listed among the witnesses representing Killeshin.

Dublittir is credited in the twelfth-century codex Rawl. B 502 with the authorship of two metrical pseudo-biblical exegeses in Irish: the poem on the descendants of Noah ‘Rédig dam, a Dé do nim’ (‘Make easy for me, O God from heaven’) and ‘Sex aetates mundi’, a translation of the Latin tract on the six ages of the world. Dublittir's authorship of ‘Rédig dam’ is generally accepted as genuine, since the closing lines of the poem confirm his authorship: ‘Missi don chuachmaig ón chill, hua hUathgail a hUsenglind’ (I am from the cuckoo's plain [?], from the church; Ua Uathgail from Killeshin). His alleged authorship of ‘Sex aetates mundi’ is based on an inscription in the introduction to the tract in Rawl. B 502, but this ascription appears to be unreliable and possibly the work of a near-contemporary compiler or copyist who may also have been associated with Killeshin, and possibly familiar with Dublittir. No such ascription is found in the other early, albeit fragmentary, version of the tract preserved in the twelfth-century codex known as Lebor na hUidre.