Canon William Carrigan, Historian of Ossory

William Carrigan was born in Ruthstown, Ballyfoyle, County Kilkenny, the youngest of 13 children. He was educated in the National School in Ballyfoyle, then in Kilkenny City in Wellington Square and then at St. Kieran's College. He attended the ecclesiastical side of the College as his brother had preceded him down the clerical path. He continued his education at Maynooth.

He was ordained by Bishop Francis Moran of Ossory in 1884. Bishop Moran was a noted historian, having founded the Ossory archaeological society in 1872. He encouraged William's early interest in all things historical. Indeed his first paper was printed in 1886 in the last issue of the Ossory Archaeological Society. He had joined the Kilkenny Archaeological Society in 1884