Áed Ua Forréid was Bishop of Armagh from 1032 to 1056. He was from the Cenél Tigernaig branch of the northern Uí Néill kin-group of Cenél nÉogain.[1] The see was not elevated to an archbishopric until 1106, well after his death.

A praise-poem in his honour, written sometime after his election and before 1042, exists in a single copy transcribed in 1628 by Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy MS B.IV.2 (1080), fol. 142r).[2]

He may have resigned the bishopric when he became fer léigind (i.e. Lector) in 1049. In the Annals of Ulster, which derive from an Armagh chronicle,[3] in their prose notice of his death at 75 years of age, he is only "eminent lector of Armagh" (ard-fer leiginn Aird Macha).[4] However, a verse cited in the same entry also describes him as "gentle bishop".

Notes

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References

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  • Evans, Nicholas J. (2010), The Present and the Past in Medieval Irish Chronicles, Studies in Celtic History 27, Woodbridge: Boydell, ISBN 9781843835493
  • Murphy, Gerard (1944), "A Poem in Praise of Áodh Úa Foirréidh, Bishop of Armagh (1032‒1056)", in O'Brien, Sylvester (ed.), Measgra i gCuimhne Mhichil Uí Chléirigh, Dublin: Assisi Press, pp. 140–164
  • Mac Airt, Seán; Mac Niocaill, Gearóid (1983), The Annals of Ulster, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies