A Dictionary of Irish Saints

Second Edition

Pádraig Ó Riain

"My interest in the histories of the Irish saints began as long ago as 1975 with an invitation from the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society to give a lecture on the patron saint of the parish I was born in and the diocese in which I have lived most of my life, Cork’s patron: St Finbarr. Reaction to the lecture, in which I contended the Finbarr’s cult originated at Movilla in North County Down, was lively, to say the least.  The various conflicting pedigrees transmitted for Finbarr then inspired me to undertake an edition of the whole corpus of Irish saints’ pedigrees, which was published by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1985 under the title Corpus genealogiarum sanctorum Hiberniae (CGSH). My notes on the genealogies, collected in two large manuscript volumes, served as a basis for a large proportion of the entries later presented in the Dictionary. However, due to other commitments, work on the Dictionary was set aside for almost twenty years until after my retirement in 2002. Drafting of entries began in earnest in 2006; a first version was completed by 2009 and, following several re-readings and numerous additions and corrections, the work was finally handed to outside readers during 2010, and subsequently first published  by Four Courts in 2011. In the thirteen years since its publication by Four Courts Press in 2011 A dictionary of Irish saints has rarely been far from my desk. Beginning with notes added to an interleaved copy,  I assembled a large selection of additional material which was published separately by Four Courts in 2022 in A Supplement to a Dictionary of Irish Saints. The material in the Supplement is incorporated into the Second Edition of the Dictionary. 

Copies of the Second Edition arrived today and I would like to congratulate the Press on the quality of the production, from cover to cover! The change in colour of the cover sets it off beautifully from the First Edition, as does the specification of Second Edition on the cover. Professor Pádraig Ó Riain

“[A]n outstanding contribution to the study of early Irish saints and their cults … For students of early Irish literature, therefore, as well as historians, Ó Riain’s Dictionary will form part of that select group of ‘indispensable books” Thomas Charles-Edwards, Irish Historical Studies

“[A] simply splendid book, which cannot be recommended highly enough to readers, for it provides an almost complete Irish hagiography” Peter Costello, The Irish Catholic

“This dictionary, the work of more than 40 years, is an extraordinary achievement … This is an important research tool for specialist libraries and for scholars of the vast heritage of Ireland. Highly Recommended” E.J. Kealey, Choice

“It is difficult to overemphasise the importance and scope of this extraordinary piece of scholarship. Simply indispensable” Brendan Scott, Breifne