Dúnchad
Dúnchad (d. 717), 11th abbot of Iona, was of royal descent, being a direct descendant of some of the Uí Néill high-kings – grandson of Maél Cobo (d. 615) and grandnephew of Domnall (qv) (d. 642). Under his rule (from c.707) Iona, and…...
Ecgberht
Ecgberht (c.638–729), an Englishman of noble birth, moved to Ireland, ‘either for the sake of religious studies or to live a more contemplative life’, according to Bede. His departure for Ireland can be assigned to the period when Bishops…...
Énnae (Enda, Éanna)
Énnae (Enda, Éanna) (d. c.530), one of the earliest monastic founders of the Irish church, is said to have been born in the mid fifth century in the kingdom of Airgialla. His Latin Life, which is a late production, has a number of chronological incongruities. It states…...
Éogan
Éogan (fl. c.570), monk of Kilnamanagh, bishop of Ardstraw, and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged in all probability to Dál nAuluim, a forshloinne (subject people) of the Ulaid. The genealogies represent Éogan as the son of Cainnech, son of Bishop Erc. If…...
Erc
Erc (d. 513/15), bishop of Slane and saint in the Irish tradition, belonged to the obscure Munster population-group of Corco Auloimm. His father is named in the genealogies as Daig son of Branchú, and he shares his Corco Auloimm ancestry with St…...
Fachtna (Fachanan)
Fachtna (Fachanan) (c.554–c.600), abbot and founder of Ros Ailithir (Ross Carbery, Co. Cork), was born at Tulach Tenn, in the territory of the Corco Loígde. The Martyrology of Donegal describes him as ‘of the race of Lughaidh, son of Íth’. According to a twelfth-…...
Fáelán
Fáelán (d. early 8th cent.), Irish missionary to Scotland, was a son of Caintigern (qv) (d. 734), who is supposed to have gone to Scotland in the early eighth century with her brother Comgán and her sons, one of whom was Fáelán.…...
Fáilbe
Fáilbe (d. 679), 8th abbot of Iona and predecessor of Adomnán (qv), was a third cousin of Cumméne Find (qv), 7th abbot, and therefore a distant kinsman of…...
Farran, George Philip
Farran, George Philip (1876–1949), marine taxonomist and fisheries scientist, was born 21 November 1876 at Knocklyon House, Templeogue, Co. Dublin, eldest among two sons and two daughters of Edmond Chomley Farran, a man of private income, of Belcamp Park, Raheny, Co. Dublin, and…...
Féchín (Mo-Ecca)
Féchín (Mo-Ecca) (d. 665) of Fore, monastic founder, notable ascetic, and saint in the Irish tradition, is known from one Latin and one Irish Life. John Colgan (qv) knew of three Irish Lives, which he conflated into a Latin version called…...
Fer-dá-Chrích
Fer-dá-Chrích (d. 748), also known as Áed grandson of Aithmet, was abbot of Dairinis and a prominent member of the Céli Dé reform movement in the eighth-century Irish church. The familiar name ‘Fer-dá-Chrích’ (man of two districts) was accorded to several distinguished…...
Fergno (Fergna, Virgno) Brit
Fergno (Fergna, Virgno) Brit (‘the Briton’) (d. 623), 4th abbot of Iona and the first to be described as a bishop in the later martyrologies, was (according to Colgan's (qv) Latin Life) son of Fáilbe, a descendant of…...
Fergus
Fergus (fl. early 8th cent.), an Irish missionary bishop to Pictland (and indeed to large parts of northern Scotland), is known in the ‘Breviary of Aberdeen’ as Fergus, but in other Scottish calendars corruptly as Terguse or Tergusius. Although he is apparently unknown…...
Fiacc
Fiacc (d. late 5th cent.), bishop of Sléibte (Sletty, Co. Carlow), was a younger contemporary of St Patrick (qv). The only sources for the life of this obscure bishop are the materials on the life of Patrick, the…...
Fiacre (Fiachra)
Fiacre (Fiachra) (d. c.670) was anchorite bishop of Brie in the district of Meaux in northern France. Biographical information is very sparse; the chief source, the ‘Vita Faronis’ (the Life of Bishop Faro (d. 672) of Meaux), states that Fiacre went to France as a man of…...
Fínán
Fínán (d. 661), monk of Iona and bishop of Lindisfarne, was Irish-born, apparently the son of one Rímid, and was probably of Ulster origin, although his genealogy is not preserved. A priest of the Columban community, he travelled to Northumbria in 652 to take up episcopal office as…...
Fínán Camm
Fínán Camm (6th–7th cent.), founder and first abbot of Cenn Éitig, and saint in the Irish tradition, is traced by the genealogists to the Munster population group of Corco Duibne. His parents are named as Móenach son of Arddae, of the Corco Duibne, and Becnat daughter of Cian of…...
Findbarr (Finbarr)
Findbarr (Finbarr) of Cork. There is scarcely a saint to rival Finbarr of Cork for the number of manuscript copies made of his Life, some thirty in total, not counting twenty-one copies of the same manuscript version made in the 1890s by Patrick Stanton of Cork. Ever since the…...
Findchú
Findchú (6th cent.), founder and first abbot of Brí Gobann and a saint in the Irish tradition, is traced – according to the strongest genealogical tradition – to Clann Branáin of Uí Briúin Bréifne. His father is named as Sétna son of Abra, while a later tradition gives his…...
Finnian (Vinnianus, Findbarr)
Finnian (Vinnianus, Findbarr) , abbot, bishop, reputed founder of the monastery of Cluain Iraird (Clonard, near Kinnegad, Co. Westmeath), and saint in the Irish tradition, was most likely a localisation of the Ulster saint, …...
Finnian (Vinnianus, Findbarr)
Finnian (Vinnianus, Findbarr) (d. 579), abbot and bishop of the monastery of Mag Bile (Movilla, near Newtownards, Co. Down) was a saint in the Irish tradition who seems to have later acquired a number of separate identities, his most notable localisations being as…...
Fintan
Fintan (d. 878), Irish peregrinus and hermit in Rheinau, was (according to his Life) born as a ciues provintiae Laginensis (a freeman of the province of Leinster) and was the son of a soldier in the army of a Leinster king. He was captured and enslaved by the…...
Fintan
Fintan (d. 603) of the moccu Echach, one of the founders of Irish monasticism and abbot-founder of the monastery of Clonenagh (near Mountrath, Co. Laois), is said to have belonged to the Fothairt of Leinster, a branch of the Laigin. Some sources name his father and his mother…...
Fintan
Fintan (d. late 5th cent.), founder and patron of the church of Druim Ing (Dromin, Ardee, Co. Louth), was (according to the later medieval genealogies) son of Éogan son of Cathán of the Cianachta Breg; his mother was Ném of the Luigni. Despite the occurrence of his name in many…...
Fintan (Munnu)
Fintan (Munnu) of the moccu Moíe (d. 637), abbot of Tech Munnu (Taghmon, Co. Wexford) and defender of the Celtic Easter, was son of Tailchán or Tulchán, a member of the Cenél Conaill branch of the Northern Uí Néill. His father was a descendant of Fiachra Róede, whose descendants the…...