County Clare
County Clare is a county in Ireland, in the Mid-West Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the West by the Atlantic Ocean. There is debate whether it should be considered a part of Connacht. Clare County Council is the local authority; the county had a population of 118,817 at the 2016 census. The county town and largest settlement is Ennis. Clare is north-west of the River Shannon covering a total area of 3,400 square kilometres. Clare is the 7th largest of Ireland's 32 traditional counties in area and the 19th largest in terms of population, it is bordered by two counties in Munster and one county in Connacht: County Limerick to the south, County Tipperary to the east and County Galway to the north. Clare's nickname is the Banner County; the county is divided into the baronies of Bunratty Lower, Bunratty Upper, Clonderalaw, Ibrickan, Islands, Tulla Lower and Tulla Upper. These in turn are divided into civil parishes; these divisions are cadastral, defining ownership, rather than administrative.
Bodies of water define much of the physical boundaries of Clare. To the south-east is the River Shannon, Ireland's longest river, to the south is the Shannon Estuary; the border to the north-east is defined by Lough Derg, the third largest lake on Ireland. To the west is the Atlantic Ocean, to the north is Galway Bay. County Clare contains a unique karst region, which contains rare flowers and fauna. At the western edge of The Burren, facing the Atlantic Ocean, are the Cliffs of Moher; the highest point in County Clare is Moylussa, 532 m, in the Slieve Bernagh range in the east of the county. The following islands lie off the coast of the county: Aughinish Inishmore Island Inishloe Mutton Island Scattery Island County Clare hosts the oldest known evidence of human activity in Ireland; the patella of a bear, subject to butchering close to the time of death, was found in the Alice and Gwendoline Cave, near Edenvale House, Clarecastle. The bone features a number of linear-cut marks, has been dated to circa 10,500 BC, from the Paleolithic era.
This discovery, publicized in 2017, pushed back Ireland's occupation by 2,500 years - what was regarded as the oldest site of occupation was the Mesolithic site of Mount Sandel, County Londonderry. This bear bone was discovered in 1903 during an archaeological excavation but was not studied until over a century later. There was a Neolithic civilization in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen: single-chamber megalithic tombs consisting of three or more upright stones. Clare is one of the richest places in Ireland for these tombs; the most noted. The remains of the people inside the tomb have been excavated and dated to 3800 BC. Ptolemy created a map of Ireland in his Geographia with information dating from 100 AD. Within his map, Ptolemy names the areas in which they resided. Historians have found the tribes on the west of Ireland the most difficult to identify with known peoples. During the Early Middle Ages, the area was part of the Kingdom of Connacht ruled by the Uí Fiachrach Aidhne.
In the mid-10th century, it was annexed to the Kingdom of Munster to be settled by the Dalcassians. It was renamed meaning North Munster. Brian Boru became a leader from here during this period the most noted High King of Ireland. From 1118 onwards the Kingdom of Thomond was in place as its own petty kingdom, ruled by the O'Brien Clan. After the Norman invasion of Ireland, Thomas de Clare established a short-lived Norman lordship of Thomond, extinguished at the Battle of Dysert O'Dea in 1318 during Edward Bruce's invasion. There are two main hypotheses for the origins of the county name "Clare". One is that the name is derived from Thomas de Clare, embroiled in local politics and fighting in the 1270s and 1280s. An alternative hypothesis is that the county name Clare comes from the settlement of Clare, whose Irish name Clár refers to a crossing over the River Fergus. In 1543, during the Tudor conquest of Ireland, Murrough O'Brien, by surrender and regrant to Henry VIII, became Earl of Thomond within Henry's Kingdom of Ireland.
Henry Sidney as Lord Deputy of Ireland responded to the Desmond Rebellion by creating the presidency of Connaught in 1569 and presidency of Munster in 1570. He transferred Thomond from Munster to Connaught. About 1600, Clare was removed from the presidency of Connaught and made a presidency in its own right under the Earl of Thomond; when Henry O'Brien, 5th Earl of Thomond died in 1639, Lord Deputy Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford decreed Clare should return to the presidency of Munster, but the Wars of the Three Kingdoms delayed this until the Restoration of 1660. Clare's county nickname is the Banner County, for which various origins have been suggested: the banners captured by Clare's Dragoons at the Battle of Ramillies.
Inis Cathaigh
Inis Cathaigh or Scattery Island is an island in the Shannon Estuary, off the coast of Kilrush, County Clare. The island is home to a lighthouse, a ruined monastery, an Irish round tower and the remains of an artillery battery; the Irish name Inis Cathaigh was anglicised Iniscathy, which became Iniscattery and Scattery. Most of the island is now owned by the Office of Public Works, who run a small visitor centre and carry out repairs and maintenance on the island, it was bought by Dúchas in 1991. St. Senan was born at Magh Lacha, County Clare, ca. 488. His parents were named Comgella, his birth was prophetically announced by St. Patrick on his visit to the Uí Fidgenti As a boy Senan was placed under the guidance of an abbot named Cassidan, finishing his studies under St. Naul at Kilmanagh, County Kilkenny. Senan commenced his missionary career by founding a church near Enniscorthy, in either 510 or 512; the parish is still known as Templeshannon. He visited Cornwall, founding a church at Sennen's Cove, another was founded in Brittany at Plouzane.
He is believed to have visited Menevia and Tours. He returned to Ireland around 520. Having founded churches at Inniscarra, at Inisluinghe, at Deer Island and Mutton Island, he settled at Iniscathay, or Inis Cathaigh, County Clare, he was visited by Saints Ciarán and Brendan, other holy men, who had heard of his sanctity and miracles. Inis Cathaigh became not only a famous abbey but the seat of a bishopric with St. Senan as its first bishop; this event may be dated as somewhere between 535 and 540. St. Senan's jurisdiction extended over the existing Baronies of Moyarta and Clonderalaw in Thomond, the Barony of Connelo, Limerick as well as a small portion of Kerry from the Feal to the Atlantic; the legend of "St. Senanus and the Lady", as told in Tom Moore's lyric, is founded on the fact that no woman was allowed to enter Inis Cathaigh, yet St. Senan founded two convents for nuns, was on a visit to one of them when he died. Legend has it. To stay true to his own edicts, Senan waited until low tide to bury her in the inter-tidal zone, not part of the "island", thus fulfilling his sister's wish while not breaking his own rules.
St. Senan was buried in the abbey church of Iniscathay on 8 March, on which day his feast is observed. One of the earliest references to the Round Tower of Inniscathay is in the Irish life of St. Senan; the Vikings first raided Inis Cathaigh in 815. The monastery was plundered until the Vikings came to settle there themselves in the mid-tenth century. This, in turn, led to attacks by Irish kings. Inis Cathaigh was a part of the Norse Kingdom of Limerick, which included not only Limerick itself but several other bases in western and northern Ireland. Given its strategic location at the mouth of the Shannon estuary, it controlled all maritime traffic up the Shannon to Limerick; the Annals of Inishfallen record that during the 970s, Norse kings of Limerick were resident at Scattery Island. In 974, Maccus mac Arailt, King of the Isles captured Ivar of Limerick, but he "escaped over sea" the following year. Ivar of Limerick, along with two of his sons, was slain on Inis Cathaigh by Brian Boru in 977.
Scattery Island Cathedral and monastery is an early Christian place of pilgrimage, where St Senan and confessor, founded a monastery, in the Shannon estuary, 5 km southwest of Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland. There are the remains of his oratory and house and of seven rude churches or chapels, together with a round tower and a holy well still in repute, it is marked by a lighthouse. At an early period the abbot-bishop of the monastery was considered to exercise authority over what became the dioceses of Killaloe and Ardfert. After the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111 a canonical diocese of Inis Cathaig was established; this was absorbed by the Diocese of Killaloe in 1189, but was restored by Pope Innocent VI and continued as a separate see under Bishop Thomas. In 1378 its possessions were divided, the island remained a portion of the Diocese of Killaloe, being subsequently merged into the parish of Kilrush. However, there is mention of an Englishman, John Grene, as Bishop of Inis Cathaig in 1467.
Inis Cathaig is now listed among the titular sees of the Catholic Church. Titular bishops of Inis Cathaig: Thomas Jerome Welsh William Anthony Hughes John Edward Heaps Frank Joseph Caggiano The artillery battery, located on the south of Scattery, was built during the Napoleonic Wars and is preserved quite well; the Shannon Estuary was one of 3 invasion places the French had considered along the west of Ireland. As such, different places along the estuary were considered for establishing a defence. Scattery Island is one of 6 batteries in the estuary. Scattery Island was chosen on the proposal of defected French general Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez; the battery forms a semi-circular D shape with a dry moat. There would have been 6 separate guns on the edge of this D shape; these could fire out over the estuary. Though they by themselves would not have been powerful enough to stop an invasion they would have been able to cause a lot of damage to any enemy fleet. In 1842, after the salvaging the Windsor Castle, Inis Cathaigh was home to Shannon Estuary Pilots and their families.
The primary families of the island were the Brennan, Scanlan, McMahon
Clonfert
Clonfert is a small village in east County Galway, halfway between Ballinasloe and Portumna. The village gives its name to the Diocese of Clonfert. Clonfert Cathedral is one of the eight cathedral churches of the Church of Ireland Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe; the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clonfert is located in Loughrea. Maeineann of Clonfert List of towns and villages in Ireland Clonfert Cathedral at Ireland West
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county in Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster; the county is named after the town of Tipperary, was established in the early thirteenth century, shortly after the Norman invasion of Ireland. The population of the county was 159,553 at the 2016 census; the largest towns are Clonmel and Thurles. Tipperary County Council is the local government authority for the county. Between 1838 and 2014 county Tipperary was divided into two ridings/counties, North Tipperary and South Tipperary, which were unified under the Local Government Reform Act 2014, which came into effect following the 2014 local elections on 3 June 2014. Tipperary is the sixth largest of the 12th largest by population, it is the third largest of the third largest by population. It is the largest landlocked county in Ireland; the region is part of the central plain of Ireland, but the diverse terrain contains several mountain ranges: the Knockmealdown, the Galtee, the Arra Hills and the Silvermine Mountains.
Most of the county is drained by the River Suir. No part of the county touches the coast; the centre is known as'the Golden Vale', a rich pastoral stretch of land in the Suir basin which extends into counties Limerick and Cork. There are 12 historic baronies in County Tipperary: Clanwilliam, Eliogarty and Offa East and Offa West, Kilnamanagh Lower, Kilnamanagh Upper, Middle Third, Ormond Lower, Ormond Upper and Arra and Slievardagh. Parishes were delineated after the Down Survey as an intermediate subdivision, with multiple townlands per parish and multiple parishes per barony; the civil parishes had some use in local taxation and were included on the nineteenth century maps of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland. For poor law purposes, District Electoral Divisions replaced the civil parishes in the mid-nineteenth century. There are 199 civil parishes in the county. Townlands are the smallest defined geographical divisions in Ireland. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was claimed as a lordship.
By 1210, the sheriffdom of Munster shired into the shires of Limerick. In 1328, Tipperary was granted to the Earls of Ormond as liberty; the grant excluded church lands such as the archiepiscopal see of Cashel, which formed the separate county of Cross Tipperary. Though the Earls gained jurisdiction over the church lands in 1662, "Tipperary and Cross Tipperary" were not definitively united until the County Palatine of Tipperary Act 1715, when the 2nd Duke of Ormond was attainted for supporting the Jacobite rising of 1715; the county was divided once again in 1838. The county town of Clonmel, where the grand jury held its twice-yearly assizes, is at the southern limit of the county, roads leading north were poor, making the journey inconvenient for jurors resident there. A petition to move the county town to a more central location was opposed by the MP for Clonmel, so instead the county was split into two "ridings"; when the Local Government Act 1898 established county councils to replace the grand jury for civil functions, the ridings became separate "administrative counties" with separate county councils.
Their names were changed from "Tipperary North/South Riding" to "North/South Tipperary" by the Local Government Act 2001, which redesignated all "administrative counties" as "counties". The Local Government Reform Act 2014 has amalgamated the two counties and restored a single county of Tipperary. Following the Local Government Reform Act 2014, Tipperary County Council is the local government authority for the county; the authority is a merger of two separate authorities North Tipperary County Council and South Tipperary County Council which operated up until June 2014. The local authority is responsible for certain local services such as sanitation and development, the collection of motor taxation, local roads and social housing; the county is part of the South constituency for the purposes of European elections. For elections to Dáil Éireann, the constituency used is: Tipperary, it returns five deputies to the Dáil. Tipperary is referred to as the "Premier County", a description attributed to Thomas Davis, Editor of The Nation newspaper in the 1840s as a tribute to the nationalistic feeling in Tipperary and said that "where Tipperary leads, Ireland follows".
Tipperary was the subject of the famous song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" written by Jack Judge, whose grandparents came from the county. It was popular with regiments of the British army during World War I; the song "Slievenamon", traditionally associated with the county, was written by Charles Kickham from Mullinahone, is sung at sporting fixtures involving the county. There are 979 Irish speakers in County Tipperary attending the five Gaelscoileanna and two Gaelcholáistí; the area around Clonmel is the economic hub of the county: to the east of the town the manufacturers Bulmers and Merck & Co.. There is much fertile land in the region known as the Golden Vale, one of the richest agricultural areas in Ireland. Dairy farming and cattle raising are the principal occupations. Other industries are the manufacture of meal and flour. Tipperary is famous for its horse breeding industry and is the home of Coolmore Stud, the largest thoroughbred
River Boyne
The River Boyne is a river in Leinster, the course of, about 112 kilometres long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, flows towards the Northeast through County Meath to reach the Irish Sea between Mornington, County Meath, Baltray, County Louth. Salmon and trout can be caught in the river, surrounded by the Boyne Valley, it is crossed just west of Drogheda by the Boyne River Bridge, which carries the M1 motorway, by the Boyne Viaduct, which carries the Dublin-Belfast railway line to the east. The catchment area of the River Boyne is 2,695 km2; the long term average flow rate of the River Boyne is 38.8 cubic metres per second. Despite its short course, the Boyne has historical and mythical connotations; the Battle of the Boyne, a major battle in Irish history, took place along the Boyne near Drogheda in 1690 during the Williamite war in Ireland. It passes through the ancient town of Trim, Trim Castle, the Hill of Tara, the Hill of Slane, Brú na Bóinne, Mellifont Abbey, the medieval town of Drogheda.
In the Boyne Valley can be found other historical and archaeological monuments, including Loughcrew, Celtic crosses, castles. This river has been known since ancient times; the Greek geographer Ptolemy drew a map of Ireland in the 2nd century which included the Boyne, which he called Βουουινδα or Βουβινδα. During the High Middle Ages, Giraldus Cambrensis called it the Boandus. In Irish mythology it is said that the river was created by the goddess Boann, according to F. Dinneen, lexicographer of the Irish Gaelic language, Boyne is an anglicised form of the name. In other legends, it was in this river where Fionn mac Cumhail captured Fiontán, the Salmon of Knowledge; the Meath section of the Boyne was known as Smior Fionn Feidhlimthe. The Boyne Navigation is a series of canals running parallel to the main river from Oldbridge near Drogheda to Navan. Owned by An Taisce and derelict, the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland are restoring the navigation to navigable status; the canal at )Oldbridge which runs through the battle of the Boyne Site was the first to be restored.
A rock with indications of being Prehistoric art was found in August 2013. Cliadh O’Gibne reported through the Archaeological Survey of Ireland that a boulder with geometric carvings had been found in Donore, County Meath; the Boyne Fishermen's Rescue and Recovery Service, near Drogheda, County Louth, were doing one of their regular operations to remove shopping trolleys from the Boyne, in May 2013, when they discovered an ancient log boat, which experts believe may be 5000 years old. Initial examination by an underwater archaeologist, suggests it could be rare because, unlike other log-boats found here, it has oval shapes on the upper edge which could have held oars. Investigations were on-going as of 2013. In 2006, the remains of a Viking ship were found in the river bed in Drogheda during dredging operations; the vessel is to be excavated. See Annals of Inisfallen AI770.2 The battle of Bolg Bóinne against the Uí Néill, by the Laigin. HMS Boyne Salmon fishing on the River Boyne, from Salmon Ireland A canoeing and kayaking guide to the River Boyne, from Irish Whitewater
Lough Erne
Lough Erne is the name of two connected lakes in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is the second-biggest lake system in Northern Ireland and Ulster, the fourth biggest in Ireland; the lakes are widened sections of the River Erne, which flows north and curves west into the Atlantic. The smaller southern lake is called the Upper Lough; the bigger northern lake is called the Lower Broad Lough. The town of Enniskillen lies on the short stretch of river between the lakes; the lake has 154 islands along with many inlets. When windy, navigation on Lower Lough Erne, running for 26 miles to the Atlantic, can be something of a challenge with waves of open-sea dimensions. Shallow Upper Lough Erne, spreading southeast of Enniskillen for about 12 miles, is a maze of islands; the River Erne is 80ml long and drains an area of about 4,350 km2. Lough Erne appears to be named after an ancient population group called the Érainn, or after a goddess from which the Érainn took their name. Since tribes were named after a divine ancestor, T. F. O'Rahilly suggested that the Érainn took their name from a goddess named Érann and that Loch Éirne means "lake of Érann".
O'Rahilly and other scholars have connected these names to Ériu, the goddess after which Ireland is named. He writes that the earlier forms of these goddess names were Everna/Iverna and Everiu/Iveriu and that both come from "the Indo-European root ei-, implying motion". In his view Érann and Ériu would thus appear to mean "she who travels regularly", explained as "the sun-goddess, for the sun was the great celestial Traveller". Alternatively, John T. Koch suggests that Ériu was a mother goddess whose name comes from an Indo-European word stem meaning "fat, fertile". In Irish mythology and folklore, there are three tales about the lake's origins. One says that it is named after a mythical woman named Erne, Queen Méabh's lady-in-waiting at Cruachan. Erne and her maidens were frightened away from Cruachan when a fearsome giant emerged from the cave of Oweynagat, they drowned in a river or lake, their bodies dissolving to become Lough Erne. Patricia Monaghan notes that "The drowning of a goddess in a river is common in Irish mythology and represents the dissolving of her divine power into the water, which gives life to the land".
Another tale says that it was formed when a magical spring-well overflowed, similar to the tale of Lough Neagh. The third says that, during a battle between the Érainn and the army of High King Fíachu Labrainne, it burst from the ground and drowned the Érainn. In Cath Maige Tuired, it is listed as one of the twelve chief loughs of Ireland; the lake was called Loch Saimer. Folklore says that Partholón killed his wife's favourite hound—Saimer—in a fit of jealous rage, the lake was named after it. Lough Erne is the setting of a folk tale known as "The Story of Conn-eda" or "The Golden Apples of Lough Erne", which appears in Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. In the tale, Conn-eda goes on a quest to procure three golden apples, a black steed and a supernatural hound from a city underneath Lough Erne; the city is ruled by a king of the Fir Bolg. The Menapii are the only known Celtic tribe named on Ptolemy’s AD 150 map of Ireland, where they located their first colony — Menapia — on the Leinster coast circa 216 BC.
They settled around Lough Erne, becoming known as the Fir Manach, giving their name to Fermanagh and Monaghan. Mongán mac Fiachnai, a 7th-century King of Ulster, is the protagonist of several legends linking him with Manannán mac Lir, they spread across Ireland. The Annals of Ulster were written in the late 15th century on Belle Isle, an island in Upper Lough Erne. Fermanagh escaped the potato blight disease during the Great Famine better than any other county, as the county had so many islands; the potato blight had difficulty travelling over water, compared to the easier transmission across the green hills and fields of most of Ireland. Those Erne islands produced surprising amounts of potatoes, whilst the mainland was starving in comparison. During the Second World War, RAF Castle Archdale was based on Lough Erne, providing an essential airbase for the Battle of the Atlantic and the battle against U boats. A secret agreement with the Irish Government permitted flying boats based there to fly West straight across neutral Ireland to the Atlantic, avoiding the two-hour detour that would have been necessary for aeroplanes based in Northern Ireland.
An example of the many ways Ireland assisted the allies while remaining neutral. In November 2012, it was announced that the Lough Erne Resort, a hotel on the southern shore of the Lower Lough, would host the 39th G8 summit; the lakes contain many small islands and peninsulas, which are called "islands" because of the convoluted shoreline and because many of them were islands prior to two extensive drainage schemes in the 1880s and the 1950s which dropped the water level by about 1.5 metres. Islands in the lower lake include Boa Island, Cleenishmeen Island, Crevinishaughy Island, Cruninish Island, Devenish Island, Ely Island, Goat Island, Horse Island, Inish Doney, Inish Fovar, Inish Lougher, Inish More, Inis Rath, Inishmakill, Lustybeg Island, Lustymore Island and White Island; those in the upper lake include Bleanish Island, Dernish Island, Inishcrevan, Inishleague, Inishturk, Killygowan Island, Naan Island and Trannish. Several of the islands are owned, come on
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to proselytize or perform ministries of service, such as education, social justice, health care, economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem, meaning "act of sending" or mittere, meaning "to send"; the word was used in light of its biblical usage. The term is most used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology. A Christian missionary can be defined as "one, to witness across cultures"; the Lausanne Congress of 1974, defined the term, related to Christian mission as, "to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement". Missionaries can be found in many countries around the world. In the Bible, Jesus is recorded as instructing the apostles to make disciples of all nations; this verse is referred to by Christian missionaries as the Great Commission and inspires missionary work. The Christian Church expanded throughout the Roman Empire in New Testament times and is said by tradition to have reached further, to Persia and to India.
During the Middle Ages, the Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick, Adalbert of Prague propagated learning and religion beyond the European boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent the Gregorian Mission into England. In their turn, Christians from Ireland and from Britain became prominent in converting the inhabitants of central Europe. During the Age of Discovery, the Catholic Church established a number of missions in the Americas and in other Western colonies through the Augustinians and Dominicans to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the Native Americans and other indigenous people. About the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians and Dominicans reached Asia and the Far East, the Portuguese sent missions into Africa. Emblematic in many respects is Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China from 1582, peaceful and non-violent; these missionary movements should be distinguished from others, such as the Baltic Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, which were arguably compromised in their motivation by designs of military conquest.
Much contemporary Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965, with an increased push for indigenization and inculturation, along with social justice issues as a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel. As the Catholic Church organizes itself along territorial lines and had the human and material resources, religious orders, some specializing in it, undertook most missionary work in the era after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. Over time, the Holy See established a normalized Church structure in the mission areas starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures and apostolic vicariates. At a stage of development these foundations are raised to regular diocesan status with a local bishops appointed. On a global front, these processes were accelerated in the 1960s, in part accompanying political decolonization. In some regions, they are still in course. Just as the Bishop of Rome had jurisdiction in territories considered to be in the Eastern sphere, so the missionary efforts of the two 9th-century saints Cyril and Methodius were conducted in relation to the West rather than the East, though the field of activity was central Europe.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, under the Orthodox Church of Constantinople undertook vigorous missionary work under the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. This had lasting effects and in some sense is at the origin of the present relations of Constantinople with some sixteen Orthodox national churches including the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church; the Byzantines expanded their missionary work in Ukraine after the mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century. Orthodox missionaries worked among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the Estonian Orthodox Church. Under the Russian Empire of the 19th century, missionaries such as Nicholas Ilminsky moved into the subject lands and propagated Orthodoxy, including through Belarus, Moldova, Estonia and China.
The Russian St. Nicholas of Japan took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century; the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century, including Saint Herman of Alaska, to minister to the Native Americans. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia continued missionary work outside Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution, resulting in the establishment of many new dioceses in the diaspora, from which numerous converts have been made in Eastern Europe, North America, Oceania. Early Protestant missionaries included John Eliot and contemporary ministers
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Twelve Apostles of Erin". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 
