Blathmac mac Con Brettan
# Blathmac mac Con Brettan

Blathmac mac Con Brettan was an Irish poet and monk whose floruit was around 760.

Blathmac was the son of Cú Brettan mac Congussa (died 740), seemingly a king of the Airthir, one of the Airgíalla kingdoms, situated in modern-day County Armagh. His brother Donn Bó was killed in battle in 759. Cú Brettan and Donn Bó both appear as characters in the saga Cath Almaine and are portrayed as poets.

Blathmac was educated in a monastic school and went on to become a monk. A manuscript containing his surviving poems, two meditations on the Virgin Mary, Tair cucum a Maire boid and A Maire, a grian ar clainde, once in the possession of Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, is in the National Library of Ireland, where it was re-discovered by Nessa Ní Shéaghdha in 1953.

Art historian Peter Harbison says that st some point, Blathmac probably visited Rome as much of his poems reflect scenes depicted on mosaics in old Roman churches.

