Attracht (Adrochta, Attracta) (7th century?), saint in the Irish tradition and founder and first abbess of Cell Sáile, was according to the genealogies of the saints a daughter of Tigernach (probably to be identifed with Tigernach son of Muiredach, an early representative of the Cenél nÉogain dynasty). She would thus have been an aunt of Do Mongóc the pilgrim (LL 347e, 36). A fragmentary Life of Attracht survives only in a seventeenth-century Franciscan transcript, printed by John Colgan (qv). Conscious that her church should be accessible to the people, she vowed to settle only where seven roads converged. Cell Sáile, her principal foundation, is said to have been i Crích Conaill (in Conall's territory), which suggests a location in Co. Donegal (probably Kintale, parish of Killygarvan), although some have identified it with Kilsally, Co. Tyrone.
Later recensions of the genealogies of the saints record two other holy women named Attracht, possibly cases of duplication, ostensibly linked to the east-Ulster lineages of Uí Echach Cobo and Dál nAraide. The latter, recorded as Attracht daughter of Talán, features in Patrician tradition at least from the time of Tírechán (qv) (Collectanea, §11; Trip. life, ii, lines 1220–27). Originally attached to the Grecraige of Loch Techet, she was allegedly professed by St Patrick (qv), whose bestowal of a chalice and paten on her seems to imply patronage. She is closely associated with the Lough Gara and Coolavin districts of Co. Sligo and especially with the foundation of Cell Attracht (Killaraght). Regarded as patroness of the diocese of Achonry, she was commemorated in local devotions up to the present century.
Perhaps Attracht daughter of Talán, rather than the daughter of Tigernach, is the wise abbess featured in the Life of Berach (qv) of Cluain Coirpthe, given the Connacht associations of the latter. In the episode concerned (§19), Attracht and other saints, including Samthann (qv), are called on to adjudicate in a dispute between Berach and a druid over the siting of a church. The year of her death is not recorded, but Attracht daughter of Tigernach probably died on 11 August, under which date she is commemorated in the martyrologies. While the foundation of Cell Sáile slid into obscurity at an early date, Killaraght survived as a hospital for the poor up to 1539.