Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill (also known as Eileen O'Connell, ) was a member of the Irish gentry and a poet. She was the main composer of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, a traditional lament in Irish described (in its written form) as the greatest poem composed in either Ireland or Britain during the eighteenth century. Ní Chonaill was a member of Muintir Chonaill of Derrynane, County Kerry, being one of twenty-two children of Dómhnaill Mór Ó Conaill and Máire Ní Dhonnchadha Dhuibh, and an aunt of Daniel O'Connell. Life Her first marriage at age fifteen was arranged by her parents. Her elderly husband died after only six months and they had no children. In 1767 she fell in love with Captain Art Ó Laoghaire of Rathleigh, Macroom, County Cork. He had recently returned from service in the Hungarian Hussars. Eileen was 23; she had been married to "old O'Connor of Firies" when she was 15, and widowed within six months of that marriage. With the marriage against the express wishes of her family, Art and Eibhlín eloped, marrying on 19 December 1767, and settled down to life at Rathleigh where they lived with Art's father, Conchubhar Ó Laoghaire. They had five children, three of whom died in infancy. She was pregnant at the time of Art's death. Art Ó Laoghaire (O'Leary) was a Roman Catholic, one of the few surviving Catholic gentry. The anti-Catholic Penal Laws in force in Ireland during the 18th century imposed severe restrictions on most of the population in terms of education, employment, trade, ownership of property and the practice of their religion. The wealthy resorted to private tutors and clandestine property arrangements, the poor to hedge schools, and large numbers of Irish went abroad, often to serve in foreign armies. Ó Laoghaire had been educated on Continental Europe and served as a captain in the Hungarian Hussars, a Regiment of Empress Marie Theresa's Army of Austro-Hungary. Art had a long-running dispute with Abraham Morris (or Morrison) of Hanover Hall, who was Sheriff of Cork ("dirty treacherous Morris", "Morris ghránna an fhill"). Morris vigorously attempted to enforce the Penal Laws in personal enmity to Art, a Catholic. The dispute came to a head in 1773 when Morris offered Art five pounds for his horse; according to the Penal Laws, Catholics were proscribed from owning horses worth more than five pounds. Art refused, and went on the run.