 He was a brilliant, red-haired, hard-living brawler, called "Owen of the Sweet Mouth" ["Eoghan an Bhéil Bhinn"], and in Munster I have myself still met Irish speakers who passed down the folk memory of his great charm.According to Dinneen, none of Ó Súilleabháin's poems were printed in his lifetime.He wrote his poems and they spread through song.