Donnough or Donnchadh "Rua" Mac Conmara was possibly born in Cratloe, County Clare, but little is known about his family or early life. He may have studied for the priesthood in Rome but been expelled before returning to Ireland, settling in County Waterford around 1740 when he took on a career as a teacher.

Mac Conmara appears to have written "Eachtra ghiolla an amarain" (translated variously as "A slave of adversity" or "The adventures of a luckless fellow") around 1745 and may be in part based on his own unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to America. In the poem, the narrator's ship bound for America was driven back to Ireland by a storm before being attacked by a French frigate, and by the end of the humorous poem, the narrator swore never again to leave dry land. Mac Conmara himself appears to have emigrated to America, perhaps settling in St. John's, Newfoundland, from 1745-1756, where he might have written "Banchnoic Eireann Oighe" ["The fair hills of holy Ireland"], a lament for a homesick Irishman.

Mac Conmara appears to have returned to Ireland in 1756, gotten married, and had at least two children. He continued teaching, lastly as a private tutor to the sons of James Power of Ballyvalloona, before retiring to his weaver son's house in Newtown. Mac Conmara wrote little in his last years before his death in 1810.

[Information for this note retrieved from Morley, Vincent, "Mac Conmara, Donnchadh 'Rua,'" Dictionary of Irish Biography Online.]

Little is known about Brian Merriman, who was born in Ennistymon, County Clare, and whose family name is more than likely a variant of the west Clare family name Marrinan. Merriman's father was a stonemason, and Merriman had two siblings. As a child, the family moved to Killanena, overlooking Lough Grancy and the surrounding countryside, and this became the setting for Merriman's long-form poem "Cuirt an mheon-oiche," or "The Midnight Court."

Merriman became a teacher and later rented a diary farm in Derryvinna, where he farmed and taught for 20 years. In 1787 he married Kathleen Collins, with whom he had two children. In 1802 or 1803 Merriman moved his family to Limerick and taught mathematics there for two years before his death in July 1805. Merriman is mostly known for "The Midnight Court" and did not appear to write more poetry after this piece.

[Information for this note retrieved from O hAnluain, Eoghan, "Merriman, Brian," Dictionary of Irish Biography Online.]