Mac Giolla Phádraig was a scion of the dynasty that ruled Ossory from before the 8th century. Only a handful of his poems are extant. A cry of despair against the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, and its consequences for the world and class to which he belonged, his "Faisean Chláir Éibhir" bears a striking resemblance to the poetry of the great Dáibhí Ó Bruadair: ""A trick of this false world has laid me low: servants in every home with grimy English but no regard for one of the poet class save "Out! and take your precious Gaelic with you!""