Donnchadh mac Eoghan Ó Duinnshléibhe, anglicised as Donough MacOwen O'Donlevy (died 30 September 1527) was an Irish physician and the ollam leighis (official physician) of the O'Donnell dynasty.

The Ó Duinnshléibhe family were formerly the ruling dynasty of the over-kingdom of Ulaid.[1] By the mid-fifteenth century, they were a hereditary medical family of physicians to the O'Donnells, based in County Donegal.[2] Some members of the family went by the surname Ultach, named after Ulaid.[3][1]

In 1497, the O'Donnell's physician ("the son of Owen Ultach") was taken prisoner by Mac Dermot of Moylurg after the O'Donnell's defeat.[4]

The Annals of the Four Masters contains Ó Duinnshléibhe's obituary:

  • 1527 - The physician O'Donlevy (Donough, son of Owen), a Doctor of Medicine, and learned in other sciences, a man of great affluence and wealth, who kept a house of general hospitality, died on the 30th of September.[4]

Eoghan Ulltach

Donnchadh's son Eoghan Ulltach, anglicised as Owen Ultach (died 26 October 1586)[4] was like his father educated in the medical arts in Paris, like his father an ollam leighis to the O’Donnells, and likewise known for his general learning. Eoghan was considered the finest physician of his time in Ireland.[5][6]

His obituaries in the Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of Ulster read, respectively:

  • 1586 - Owen Ultach (the son of Donough), i.e. the Doctor, died; and this Owen was a doctor in regard of learning, for he excelled the medical doctors of Ireland in the time in which he lived.[4]
  • 1586 - The 26th day of the month of October, Eoghan Ulltach, son of the doctor, namely, Donchadh, son of Eoghan, unique preceptor and unique sage of Ireland in healing, died this year.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Moore, Norman (1893). "Macdonlevy, Cormac" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 35. p. 52.
  2. ↑ Woods, J. Oliver (September 1981). "The history of medicine in Ireland". Ulster Medical Journal. 51 (1): 35–45. PMC 2385830. PMID 6761926.
  3. ↑ McNulty, Paul B. (2008). "Origin of the Surname, McNulty, and its Association with the McDonlevys/Dunleavys of County Down". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Annals of the Four Masters. 1636.
  5. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography Sidney Lee, ed., New York: MacMillan & Co.; London: Smith, Elder & Co. (1893), Vol. 35 Mac Carwell – Maltby, p 52
  6. ↑ Edward MacLysaght, The Surnames of Ireland, 5th Edition, Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1980, p 238, 292
  7. ↑ Annals of Ulster.


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