Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin

Who was Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin?

Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin was an Irish language author, linen draper, politician, and one time hedge school master. He is also known as Humphrey O'Sullivan.

He was deeply involved in Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Emancipation movement and in relief work among the poor of County Kilkenny. He was also an avid bird watcher and a collector of rare manuscripts in the Irish language.

His diary, Cín Lae Amhlaoibh, was kept between 1827 and 1835. It remains one of the most important sources for 19th-century Irish life and one of the few surviving works from the perspective of the Roman Catholic peasantry.