Mícheál Ó Cléirigh

Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (c. 1590 – c. 1643), sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe, antiquary and Franciscan friar, and the chief author of the Annals of the Four Masters, assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire, and Peregrinus Ó Duibhgeannain. He was a member of the Ó Cléirigh bardic family.

The Annála Ríoghachta Éireann (Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland) were compiled between 1632 and 1636 under Ó Cléirigh’s direction at the Franciscan convent of Donegal located at Bundrowes (Bun Drobhaoise), in the Ross area of the townland of Magheracar, in Bundoran, County Donegal. Contemporary Franciscan documentary evidence preserved among the Louvain Papers records Bundrowes as Ó Cléirigh’s place of residence and work during the 1630s, as reported in modern historical analysis. These official Franciscan administrative records, together with Ó Cléirigh’s own surviving colophons, identify Bundrowes as his principal base during the compilation of the annals and confirm the role of the local Franciscan community in supporting the work.

Ó Cléirigh also authored the Martyrology of Donegal in the 17th century.