John Folan (bishop)
Roman Catholic bishop
John Folan (died 30 January 1521) was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick from 1489 until his death.
John Wheelan, known in the succession as John Folan was a canon of Ferns and rector of Clonmore. He was also known to be procurator for Octavian de Palato, Archbishop of Armagh, in Rome. Begley, the authority on the diocese of Limerick, offers very little information on Bishop Folan, saying merely he was consecrated on 13 May 1489 and he carried out repairs and improvements on his cathedral. Begley lists the repairs carried out on the nave and the addition of four chapels parallel to the transept.
He died on 30 January 1521.
“John Folan (bishop)” enters the record as roman Catholic bishop. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Folan and bishop can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“John Folan (bishop)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, Folan and bishop provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q68903684. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1521 and 1489.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “John Folan (bishop)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow John Folan (bishop) primary sources, John Folan (bishop) archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John Folan (bishop)”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “John Folan (bishop)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.