Ciarán

Ciarán, saint and patron of Clonmacnoise, of Saigir in Ossory, and over thirty other early Irish churches. Probably a non-historical figure, he appears to be a Christianized version of an ancestral deity of the Ciarraige (from ciar, tanned) who were settled in northeast Connacht and south Munster. The Book of the Dun Cow was written on the hide of a brown cow said to have followed the saint to Clonmacnoise.

A name borne by at least twenty-six Irish saints, according to early sources, of whom St Ciarán (1), founder of Clonmacnoise, is the best known.