Muiris mac Donnchadh Ulltach Ó Duinnshléibhe ( fl. 1602-1630s), anglicised Maurice MacDonough Ultach Donlevy, also known as Muiris Ulltach, was an Irish Fransiscan cleric. [1] [2]
Ó Duinnshléibhe was born in the sixteenth century to a father named Donnchadh. [1] He was born into the Ó Duinnshléibhe family, a hereditary medical family of physicians to the O'Donnells, based in County Donegal. [3] Some members of the family went by the surname Ultach, named after the over-kingdom Ulaid, of which they were formerly the ruling dynasty. [4] [5]
The Annals of the Four Masters describe him as "a poor friar of the order of St. Francis" from the convent of Donegal's monastery. [1]
After the Irish defeat at the Battle of Kinsale, the O'Donnell clan left Ireland for Spain. [6] In September 1602, Ó Duinnshléibhe attended clan chief Hugh Roe O'Donnell on his death bed in Simancas Castle, Spain. Also attending were O'Donnell's spiritual adviser, Fláithrí Ó Maolchonaire (future Archbishop of Tuam) [1] and the similarly-named Father Muiris mac Seaán Ulltach Ó Duinnshléibhe.[ citation needed]
In the 1630s, both Ó Duinnshléibhe and Muiris mac Seaán Ulltach Ó Duinnshléibhe were attached to the Franciscan convent at Bundrowes, and became acquainted with chronicler Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, who was then compiling the Annals of the Four Masters. Ó Duinnshléibhe's recollections of events, including the death of O'Donnell, were incorporated into the compilation. [2] [1]