Riocard
Bairéad was a famous poet from Belmullet,in Co Mayo He was known as’FILE
IORRAS’.Three of his most famous poems were’EOGHAN COIR’,
' PREAB SAN OL’ (which is the midi music you hear in the background) and
‘TARRAING NA MÓNA’.He lived during the 18th century. Antony Raftery the
blind poet also lived during that time . Riocard was a descendant of the
Norman Barretts and was born in 1740 in Barrack which is near Elly Bay.
Locally he was known as Dící . His wifes name was Nancy Tollet.
She was the daughter of a prosperous Protestant landowner.Jack Tollet
her father rejected him. Riocard was a Catholic and was of lower social
class. So Riocard and Nancy eloped and were married by a local priest.
Riocard and Nancy lived in Carne. They had no children but Riocard was
said to be the father of an illegitiate daughter. Nobody knows when Nancy
died but Riocard married again to a girl named Maire Ní Mhóráin. They
had a son and a daughter. Maire’s name is tarnished though because she
is blamed for wrongly or rightly destroying all his poems after his death
on 18 of December 1819.
(by Kelly)
