According to Julie Henigan, MacCumhaigh would also "compose bawdy songs, some of which were censored in anthologies but many of which entered community tradition". Some of the poems reveal political history, the sufferings caused by the imposition of the penal laws and the social life of the people of the district.Art Mac Cumhaigh by Monsignor Dr Reamonn O Muiri Patrick Cavanagh criticised his "whimsey and lack of specificity".
