Classic Studies on the Ancient Irish church offers a wealth of perspectives on the history of the early Irish Church and the lives of its saints. It offers valuable insight from noted nineteenth- and twentieth-century Celtic scholars and historians, such as Charles Plummer and Whitley Stokes, along with translations of Lives of Irish saints into Latin, Irish, Middle Irish, and English. The collection brings together fact and legend, poetry and prose, and historical and modern thought, delving into the past to illuminate the storied history of Christianity’s beginnings in Ireland.

Martin W. Foye found the history of the early Irish church interesting because of its long opposition to the Roman Catholic Church, giving it what he saw as 1,000 years of simple, fresh, and sacred space for Christianity to flourish apart from Roman influence. Foye delivers this volume in two parts—first, the historical facts; second, the doctrine and religion of the early Irish church.