Pádraig Ó Riain is an Irish Celticist and prominent hagiologist focusing on Irish hagiography, martyrdom, mythology, onomastics and codicology.

Ó Riain has spent much of his academic life at the University College Cork, where he became a lecturer in 1964. Between 1973 and his retirement, he was professor of Old and Middle Irish. He has been a member of the Royal Irish Academy

Royal Irish Academy

The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...

 since 1989, president of the Irish Texts Society

Irish Texts Society

The Irish Texts Society was founded in 1898 to promote the study of Irish literature. The Society publishes annotated editions of texts in Irish with English translations and related commentaries....

 since 1992, Parnell Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College, Cambridge

Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...

, since 2002 and more recently, a member of the Placenames Commission of Ireland (An Coimisiún Logainmneacha).

Selected works

• Clár na Lámhscríbhinní Gaeilge sa Bhreatain Bhig. Dublin, 1968.
• Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae. Dublin, 1985. ISBN 0-901282-80-4.
• Beatha Bharra, Saint Finbarr of Cork: The Complete Life. Irish Texts Society 57. London. 1993. ISBN 1-870-16657-4.
• The Making of a Saint: Finbarr of Cork 600-1200. Irish Texts Society Subsidiary Series 5. London, 1997. ISBN 1-870-16684-1.
• (ed.) Irish Texts Society: The First Hundred Years. Irish Texts Society Subsidiary Series 9. London, 1998. ISBN 1-870-16688-4.
• (ed. with John Carey and Máire Herbert). Saints and Scholars: Studies in Irish Hagiography. Dublin, 2001. ISBN 1-85182-486-3.
• Four Irish Martyrologies: Drummond, Turin, Cashel, York. Woodbridge, 2002. ISBN 1-870252-19-5.
• (ed.) Beatha Aodha Ruaidh, the Life of Red Hugh O’Donnell: Historical and Literary Contexts. Irish Texts Society Subsidiary Series 12. London, 2002. ISBN 1-870166-91-4
• (ed. with Diarmuid Ó Murchadha and Kevin Murray). Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames: Foclóir Stairiúil Áitainmneacha na Gaeilge, Fascicle 1, Names Beginning in A-. London, 2002. ISBN 1-870166-70-1.

Festschrift

• John Carey, Máire Herbert and Kevin Murray (eds.), Cín Chille Cúile: Texts, Saints and Places. Essays in Honour of Pádraig Ó Riain. Celtic Studies Publications. Aberystwyth, 2004. ISBN 1-891271-13-X.