There is a rather intriguing entry in the Martyrology of Tallaght at August 31 for a Saint Aedh, described as a Martyr. This is interesting, first because an early Irish martyr, at least on home soil, is a very rare bird indeed and secondly because he is but one of a number of saints who bear this name whose feasts are commemorated on this day. The most well-known of the saints Aedh (Aodh, Aedhan, Aid, Aidan) whose feasts are recorded today on the calendars has to be Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, but there is also a Deacon Aedh. The Aedh who was also a ‘martyr’, however, remains an enigma and as far as I can see is recorded only in The Martyrology of Tallaght. Canon O’Hanlon has but a single sentence to write on this saint in Volume VIII of his Lives of the Irish Saints:

St. Aedh, Martyr.