Mac Domhnaill, Aodh (McDonnell, Hugh) (1802–67), writer and folklore collector, was born at Drumgill, near Drumcondra, Co. Meath. His father was named Séamas Mac Domhnaill but nothing else is known of his immediate family. In 1827 he married Bridget Roe of Ardee, Co. Louth, and they had one daughter. There is some evidence to suggest that Mac Domhnaill was employed as a teacher in his native district by the Irish Society for Promoting the Education of the Native Irish through the Medium of their Own Language, a body that viewed education as a means of enabling Irish-speakers to read the Bible; however, no religious instruction was given in the Society's schools and this allowed catholics such as Mac Domhnaill to serve as teachers. Mac Domhnaill's wife died in 1836, an event that was lamented in verse by his friend and fellow poet, Peadar Ó Gealacáin (qv). Mac Domhnaill subsequently worked in the Irish schools established in the Glens of Antrim by the Home Mission, a presbyterian body that shared the objectives of the Irish Society, and he was one of those who assisted in the preparation of a textbook, Casán na Gaedhilge: an introduction to the Irish language (Belfast, 1841). The schools of the Home Mission were effectively suppressed following their condemnation by the catholic bishop of Down and Connor, Cornelius Denvir (qv), in 1840, but Mac Domhnaill disguised this fact from his superiors and continued drawing his salary till the following year, when the deception was exposed in the press by a catholic priest.
Mac Domhnaill next moved to Belfast, where he was employed by Robert MacAdam (qv) from 1842 to 1856 as a collector of Irish-language folklore and literary texts. During the same period, he composed about forty poems of uneven quality on such subjects as the campaign for repeal, the death of Thomas Davis (qv), the famine, and the death of Daniel O'Connell (qv) – verse that may be of greater interest for the light it sheds on contemporary attitudes than for its literary merits. One of his poems, a lament composed on the death of Dr James MacDonnell (qv) in 1845, was published as a leaflet. Between 1849 and 1853 Mac Domhnaill wrote his most important work, the Fealsúnacht (‘philosophy’), a substantial prose work that is essentially a natural history of Ireland containing descriptions of the flora and fauna, herbal remedies, and principal crops. While it contains some information on contemporary agriculture, the chief importance of the work now lies in the evidence it provides about the dialect of Co. Meath.
Mac Domhnaill left Belfast before the end of 1856 and moved to Co. Donegal, where his married daughter was living. There he obtained employment with the Church Endowment Body as a ‘circulating master’ to teach students to read the Irish Bible, a position that he resigned in 1859. He is thought to have spent his final years with his daughter at Carrickfin, but he died in the poor house at Cootehill, Co. Cavan, on 30 March 1867. His remains were brought to Moyra churchyard, near Falcarragh, Co. Donegal, for burial.
More information on this entry is available at the National Database of Irish-language biographies (Ainm.ie).