The Island of Saints and Scholars was aptly named and produced hundreds of true saints from the 5th to the 9th century, although there are officially only three canonised saints, Laurence O"Toole, Malachy and Oliver Plunkett.This book provides biographies of a representative selection of the women and men whose sanctity, austerity, humanity and scholarship are the glory of Irish history, the remarkable people who lit a light that shone in the darkness and was never quenched. Patrick, Brigid, Brendan, Colmcille, Kilian, Ita - names that are given to children in Ireland and worldwide to this day-are only a few of the many great saints who were associated with every county and diocese in Ireland in the early Christian period and later.Peg Coghlan is the pseudonym of an Irish writer, critic and historian.