Cú Choigríche Ó Duibhgeannáin (fl. 1627–1636), anglicised Peregrine O'Duignan, was an Irish historian and chronicler. He is best known for being one of the "Four Masters" - the authors of the historical chronicle Annals of the Four Masters.

Name

Cú Coigriche (also Cuchogry) means "hound [or hero] of the neighbouring [or foreign] land." Upon taking holy orders in the Franciscan Order of Leuven, his name was latinised to Pereginus.[citation needed]

Early life

Ó Duibhgeannáin was born about or after 1590.[citation needed] His father was Tuathal Buidhe Ó Duibhgeannáin, of Castlefore, County Leitrim. His family, the clan Uí Dhuibhgeannáin, were professional historians from Annaly, many of whom had crossed the Shannon and practised their art in Connacht. Here the Ó Duibhgeannains set up a bardic college at Kilronan, near Lough Key in northern County Roscommon.[citation needed]

The "Four Masters"

Around 1627, he began working with Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh and Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire under the direction of Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh. In that year Ó Cléirigh was sent from his mother house at Leuven to Ireland to collect Irish literary, historical and chronological material in danger of being lost. These materials were assembled into a number of compilations, the most famous being the Annals of the Four Masters. In 1636, the year Annals was completed, it is likely Ó Duibhgeannáin returned to Leuven with Mícheál Ó Cléirigh. It is possible that he remained in Ireland, as a copy of the annals was being used in the town of Galway by Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh in the late 1640s. It may not be coincidental that a kinsman of Ó Duibhgeannáin, Daibhidh Ó Duibhgheannáin ("lame David") was living and working in Connemara at least as early as 1651.

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