Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre (c. 1747 – 27 July 1805) was an Irish language bard, farmer, and hedge school teacher from rural County Clare. His single surviving work of substance, the 1000-line long Dream vision poem Cúirt an Mheán Oíche (The Midnight Court), describes a supernatural trial in which the women of Ireland are suing the men for refusing to marry and father children and is often compared to the works of François Rabelais. Cúirt an Mheán Oíche is widely regarded as the greatest work of comic or satirical verse in the history of Irish poetry.