Biography

Proinsias (the Gaelic version of "Francis") Mac Cana was educated in Ireland and Wales. He contributed to scholarship in four languages (English, French, Irish, and Welsh) and he published several books on early Celtic literature and mythology, of which he is considered one of the world's greatest scholars. He became a professor at the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies and other universities, including the Harvard School of Celtic Studies, retiring in 1997 as senior Professor at the Dublin Institute. He also held the chairs of Welsh and Old Irish at the National University of Ireland in Dublin. A philologist and literary historian, his scholarship was profound and wide-ranging.