- Dallan Forgaill
Infobox Saint
name=Saint Dallan Forgail
birth_date=c. 530
death_date=598
feast_day=January 29
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church 
imagesize=100px
caption=Saint Dallan Forghaill
birth_place=Magh Slécht, County Cavan, Ireland
death_place=monastery of Inniskeel, Donegal
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prayer="Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;Naught be all else to me save that Thou art.Thou my best thought by day or by night,Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light."
prayer_attrib=Saint Dallan Forgaill (Dallan Forchella; Dallan Forgaill; Dallan of Cluain Dallain;
Eochaidh ) was a Christian Irish Poet. Dallan was born around 530 AD inMagh Slécht ,County Cavan ,Ireland , and studied so intensively that he literally became blind from writing poetry and studying. He was a first cousin of Saint Mogue. Dallan was martyred in 598, when pirates broke into the island monastery of Inniskeel,Donegal , where he is buried, and was beheaded. It is also said that God reattached his head to his body after being martyred.Dallan was widely known as the chief poet of Ireland. He reformed the Bardic Order, thus helping preserve the Gaelic language and literature. He is best known for eulogies attributed to him, on the subject of contemporaneous Irish saints, namely the "Amra Choluim Chille" on
St. Columba , 'Amra Senain' onSt. Senan , and "Amra Connaill' forSt. Connall . The poems, rarely translated, were of such obscure language that subsequent scribes included copious glosses on the poems. The best example is the "Amra Choluim Chille", wherein the glosses contain poems in themselves, some of which deal with the Fenian Cycle.He is thought to be the writer of '
Be Thou My Vision '.External links
* [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G301900/text003.html Amra Choluim Chille—"Lebor Na hUidre" version] ; [http://historical.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cul.cdl/docviewer?did=cdl208&seq=&view=50&frames=0&pagenum=162 Liber Hymnorum version] and [http://historical.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cul.cdl/docviewer?did=cdl074&seq=&view=50&frames=0&pagenum=55 translation]
* [http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/G400018/ Rop tú mo baile] and translation [http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/b/b021.html 'Be Thou My Vision']
* [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dallan+forgaill&spell=1 Blind Saint Dallan, Celtic Christian Heritage] , search for "dallan forgaill"
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