Brian Merriman

"The Midnight Court" redirects here. For other uses, see Midnight Court.

A statue of Merriman at Ennistymon

Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre (c. 1747 – 27 July 1805) was an 18th-century Irish language bard, farmer, hedge school teacher, and Irish traditional musician from rural County Clare.

Long after his death, Merriman's life drew wide attention after his single surviving work of substance was collected from the local oral tradition, written down, and published for the first time. The poem is a 1000-line long parody of the Aisling, or Dream vision poetry tradition, the battle of the sexes, and Mythopoeic fictionalisations of Irish mythology: (Irish: Cúirt an Mheán Oíche) (The Midnight Court).

The poem describes a lawsuit before the judicial bench of Aoibheal, a former goddess from Irish mythology who had been demoted to queen of the fairies since the Christianization the Irish people by Saint Patrick. In what has been described as, "a battle of the sexes in fairyland",[1] the women of Ireland are suing the men for refusing to get married and father children. The poet versifies the self-justifying arguments and bottomless self-pity of the morally bankrupt lawyers for both genders, which are then answered by the judge's ruling that all laymen must marry before the age of 20 or face flogging at the hands of Ireland's understandably frustrated and outraged women. The poet is saved from being the first flogging victim at the last minute by waking up and realizing that the trial was all a nightmare.

Brian Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán Oíche has been compared to the works of Ovid,[2] Geoffrey Chaucer, Miguel de Cervantes, François Rabelais,[3] Dante Alighieri,[4] Jonathan Swift,[5] Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, William Blake,[6] Robert Burns,[7] and Helen Fielding.[8] It is widely regarded as the greatest work of Irish comic poetry and one of the most iconic works in the history of Irish literature in any language. Merriman's parody of the fantasy genre and of the moral foibles of small town Gaels have also had many emulators; including Fr. Allan MacDonald, Liam O'Flaherty, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Flann O'Brien, and Seamus Heaney. Merriman's poem has also been adapted at least twice into a stage play and once into an opera by living composer of Classical music Ana Sokolovic.

  1. ^ The Midnight Court Opera, by Tom Service, The Guardian, 1 Jul 2006.
  2. ^ Cúirt an Mheadhon Oidhche by Brian Merriman: Risteard Ó Foghludha: review by T. F. O'Rahilly, Gadelica: A Journal of Modern Irish Studies, Vol. 1. No. 3 (1913), pp. 190–204.
  3. ^ Seán Ó Tuama, Brian Merriman and His Court, pg. 158.
  4. ^ "Touched by the Master" by Ciaran Carson. The Guardian, Fri 3 June 2005.
  5. ^ William Butler Yeats (1962), Explorations, Selected by Mrs. W.B. Yeats. Pages 281–286.
  6. ^ William Butler Yeats (1962), Explorations, Selected by Mrs. W.B. Yeats. Pages 281–286.
  7. ^ William Butler Yeats (1962), Explorations, Selected by Mrs. W.B. Yeats. Pages 281–286.
  8. ^ The Midnight Court Opera, by Tom Service, The Guardian, 1 Jul 2006.