Early Irish Saints - John J. Ó Ríordáin

These short popular essays on fourteen well-known and well-loved early Irish saints present a very readable and informative amalgam of often scarce historical fact and much folklore and legend from the tradition of the people. Fr Ó Ríordáin introduces the book with an overview of the sources for information on these saints which includes a most informative and helpful commentary on what the authors of the early Lives of the saints saw as their function – something very different from the function of a modern-day biographer.

The result is a series of very lively pen-pictures which reverberate with the traditional faith and insights of the people who kept these stories alive for over a millennium. The saints include Patrick, Brigid, Colmcille, Enda, Brendan the Navigator, Cummian the Tall, Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, Ninnidh, Ita, Kevin, Adomnán, Cainnech, Columbanus and Gall.