The first edition of the Bible in Irish character printed for the British and foreign Bible society is the version of 1690, revised by James MacQuige.
The first translation of the Old Testament was printed in Irish in 1685. Muircheartach Ó Cionga [Murtagh King] and Séamas De Négla [James Nangle] had done the translation commissioned by and under the supervision of the bishop of Kilmore and provost of Trinity, William Bedell who was convinced that the conversion of the Irish to Anglicanism could only be achieved if they had access to the text of the Bible in the vernacular. The translation of the New Testament (1602) is that of William Daniel [Ó Domhnuill, O'Donnell] (1570–1628).
After Bedell’s death following the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the manuscript translation of the Old Testament lay dormant until an other provost of Trinity, Narcissus Marsh, heard of it, saw to it’s preparation for printing and sent it to Robert Boyle who financed the publication.