Greg Daly
The renowned priest and academic Msgr Pádraig Ó Fiannachta has died at the age of 89.
Born in 1927, the Co. Kerry priest studied in Killarney’s St Brendan’s College before studying Celtic Studies in Maynooth and doing a master’s degree in UCC on the 17th-Century priest and scholar Geoffrey Keating. Ordained in 1953, he spent seven years as a curate in a Welsh-speaking parish in North Wales before being appointed Professor of Welsh and of Old and Middle Irish in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
After work on the Táin Bó Cuailgne and a dictionary of Old Irish, for which he was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy, he began his most ambitious project in the 1960s, overseeing the translation of the Bible from the original languages into readable and accurate modern Irish.
He also translated St Augustine’s Confessions into Irish, edited over 280 editions of An Sagart and was editor of Leabhair Maigh Nuad for over 40 years.
In 1979, he became Professor of Modern Irish in Maynooth, retiring in 1992. Returning to his native Kerry, he resumed pastoral work as parish priest in Dingle. He retired in 2007, remaining active both pastorally and academically until his death on July 16.