Gilbert

(d. 1145), appointed first bishop of Limerick about 1106, an important figure in the 12th-century reform. He was also the first native-born papal legate (evidence that Máel Muire Ua Dunáin, d. 1110, had exercised a legateship before Gilbert is unreliable) and in that capacity presided at the Synod of Ráith Bressail (IIII), which outlined a diocesan structure for the Irish church. His treatise De usu ecclesiastico (Concerning Ecclesiastical Practice), which focused on episcopal church government, was probably written in association with that synod. He corresponded with Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, and may be presumed to have been closely associated with Muirchertach Ua Briain, king of Munster and claimant to the high kingship. In 1140, on grounds of advanced age, he resigned the office of native papal legate to Malachy, as well as the see of Limerick.

From The Oxford Companion to Irish History in Oxford Reference.