Thanks for continuing on with this. I hate to sound totally stupid, but what is the author's name in English? I would like to play with some Jesuit sources to see if I can pin down his identity. That might help me determine which Fallon I'm dealing with here.

Maybe Dermot/Diarmaid/Diarmuid (Ó) Murr(a)y. Any of those combinations.
But wait for more ideas on that.

Had to travel out of town. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll start playing with the name.

Just wondering if Caitríona or anyone had any recent breakthroughs with the deciphering or the translation?

_________________
Múinteoir Gaeilge - Irish Teacher
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect, but I can also speak Ulster and Munster Irish with native-level pronunciation.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), Gaeilic Uladh (GU), Gaelainn na Mumhan (GM), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).

Transactions for the Iberno-Celtic Society of 1820. Vol.I-Part I by Edward O'Reilly.

page cci (A.D. 1690)

CCCXIX. At this time also flourished Dermod roe O'Muireadhaigh, or O'Murray, author of a poem addressed to a Priest of the name of O'Phelan, who renounced the church and married a wife. This poem consists of thirty-two verses, beginning "Go tapuidh gluais as suan an tsaoghail gan sgith," "Quickly pass on from this worldly sleep, without delay."

Maybe this has already been translated. There seem to be verses missing, too. And, if the poem were written in 1771, the poet would have to have been at least 100 years old when he wrote it. Something doesn't quite match up.

I also found a long poem in "The Politics of Language in Ireland - 1366-1922" by Tony Crowley (page 78, entry 3.19 under the year 1690) entitled "Diarmuid Mac Muiredhaigh Cecinti [Diarmaid Mac Muireadhiagh Sang This], anon., late seventeenth century. Is this the same person?