Colgan, John (1592?–1658), Franciscan friar and hagiographer, was born in Priestown in the parish of Donagh, Inishowen, Co. Donegal. Little is known for certain of his early years or family circumstances. He was a member of a well-established Donegal clerical family, the Mac Colgans of…
Ó Clabaigh, Colmán N.
Harold, Francis
Harold, Francis (c.1617–1685), Franciscan priest and historian, was born in Limerick. Though he claimed to be of Hiberno-Norse royal stock, nothing is known of his immediate family. His mother was a member of the Wadding family of Waterford and his father may have been…
O'Fihely, Maurice
O'Fihely, Maurice (Mauritius de Portu, Mauritius de Hibernia, Flos Mundi) (d. 1513), Franciscan friar, theologian, author, and archbishop of Tuam. The origins and early career of Maurice O'Fihely are obscure and accounts of the period of his life before 1488 are almost entirely…
Punch (Pontius, Ponce), John
Punch (Pontius, Ponce), John (1603–c.1660×73), philosopher, theologian, and controversialist, was born in Cork of an Anglo-Irish family. Nothing is known of his parents, his early years, or his education before he entered the novitiate of the Irish Franciscans at St…