Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh


The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh is a Latin ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church situated in Northern Ireland. Its ordinary is the Archbishop of Armagh, who serves concurrently as the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of Armagh and holds the title of Primate of All Ireland, the highest-ranking prelate in the Irish Catholic hierarchy.
The mother church of the archdiocese is St Patrick's Cathedral, a site of profound historical and spiritual significance. The archdiocese’s claim to primatial status is rooted in its founding by Saint Patrick circa 445, establishing it as the principal see of Irish Christianity. Its recognition as a metropolitan province was formalized in 1152 by the Synod of Kells, affirming its ecclesial preeminence.
The current archbishop, Eamon Martin, has held office since 2024. He is assisted by auxiliary bishop Michael Router, appointed in 2019.

Province and geographic remit

The Province of Armagh is one of the four ecclesiastical provinces that together form the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland; the others are Dublin, Tuam and Cashel. The geographical remit of the province straddles both political jurisdictions on the island of Ireland – the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the remit covers parts of the former administrative counties of Armagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. In the Republic of Ireland, the remit covers parts of County Louth and most of County Meath. It contains the city of Armagh and the large towns Ardee, Coalisland, Cookstown, Drogheda, Dundalk, Dungannon and Magherafelt.
The suffragan dioceses of the Metropolitan Province are:

Foundation and early history

St. Patrick, having received some grants of land from the chieftain Daire, on the hill called Ard-Macha, built a stone church on the summit and a monastery and some other religious edifices and fixed on this place for his metropolitan see. He also founded a school in the same place, which soon became famous and attracted thousands of scholars. In the course of time other religious bodies settled in Armagh, such as the Culdees, who built a monastery there in the 8th century.
The city of Armagh was thus until modern times a purely ecclesiastical establishment. About 448, St. Patrick, aided by Secundinus and Auxilius, two of his disciples, held a synod at Armagh, of which some of the canons are still extant. One of these expressly mentions that all difficult cases of conscience should be referred to the judgment of the Archbishop of Armagh, and that if too difficult to be disposed of by him with his counsellors they should be passed on to the Apostolic See of Rome. In Irish times, the primacy of Armagh was questioned only by the great southern centre of the Irish Church, at Cashel.
For many centuries the primates were accustomed to make circuits and visitations through various parts of the country for the collection of their dues. This was called the "Cattlecess", or the "Law of St. Patrick". Beginning in 734, during the incumbency of Primate Congus, it continued until long after the Cambro-Norman invasion, but ceased as soon as Norman prelates succeeded to the see. Two kings gave it their royal sanction: Felim, King of Munster, in 822, and Brian Boru, in 1006. The record of the latter's sanction is preserved in the Book of Armagh, in the handwriting of Brian Boru's chaplain. To add solemnity to their collecting tours, the primates were in the habit of carrying with them the shrine of St. Patrick, and as a rule their success was certain. These collections seem to have been made at irregular intervals and were probably for the purpose of keeping up the famous school of Armagh, said at one time to contain 7,000 students, as well as for the restoration, often needed, of the church and other ecclesiastical buildings when destroyed by fire or plundered in war. The Irish annals record no fewer than seventeen burnings of the city, either partial or total. It was plundered on numerous occasions by the Danes and the clergy driven out of it. It was also sacked during the conquest of Ulster by the Cambro-Normans.

Disputes over primacy

The seizure of the primacy of Armagh by laymen in the 11th century has received great prominence owing to St. Bernard's denunciation of it in his "Life of St. Malachy", but the abuse was not without a parallel on the continent of Europe. The chiefs of the tribe in whose territory Armagh stood usurped the position and temporal emoluments of the primacy and discharged by deputy the ecclesiastical functions. The abuse continued for eight generations until Cellach, known as St. Celsus, who was intruded as a layman, had himself consecrated bishop, and ruled the see with great wisdom.
In 1111 he held a great synod at Fiadh-Mic-Aengus at which were present fifty bishops, 300 priests, and 3,000 other ecclesiastics, and also Murrough O'Brian, King of Southern Ireland, and his nobles. During his incumbency the priory of Sts. Peter and Paul at Armagh was re-founded by Imar, the learned preceptor of St. Malachy. This was the first establishment in Ireland into which the Canons Regular of St. Augustine had been introduced. Rory O'Connor, High King of Ireland, afterwards granted it an annual pension for a public school.
After a short interval, Celsus was succeeded by St. Malachy O'Morgair, who later suffered many tribulations in trying to effect a reformation in the diocese. He resigned the see after three years and retired to the Bishopric of Down. In 1139 he went to Rome and solicited the Pope for two palliums, one for the See of Armagh and the other probably for a new Metropolitan See of Cashel. The following year he introduced the Cistercian Order into Ireland, by the advice of St. Bernard. He died at Clairvaux, while making a second journey to Rome. St. Malachy is honoured as the patron saint of the diocese.
Gelasius succeeded him and during a long incumbency of thirty-seven years held many important synods which effected great reforms. At the Synod of Kells, held in 1152 and presided over by Cardinal Paparo, the Pope's legate Gelasius received the pallium and at the same time three others were handed over to the new metropolitan sees of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam.
The successor of Gelasius in the see, Cornelius Mac Concaille, who died at Chambéry the following year, on a journey to Rome, has been venerated ever since in that locality as a saint. He was succeeded by Gilbert O'Caran, during whose incumbency the see suffered greatly from the depredations of the Anglo-Norman invaders. William Fitz-Aldelm pillaged Armagh and carried away St. Patrick's crosier, called the "Staff of Jesus". O'Caran's successor was Thomas O'Connor. In the year after his succession to the see, Pope Lucius III, at the instance of John Comyn, the first English prelate in the See of Dublin, tried to abolish the old Irish custom according to which the primates claimed the right of making solemn circuits and visitations in the province of Leinster as well as those of Tuam and Munster. The papal bull issued was to the effect that no archbishop or bishop should hold any assembly or ecclesiastical court in the Diocese of Dublin, or treat of the ecclesiastical causes and affairs of the said diocese, without the consent of the Archbishop of Dublin, if the latter were actually in his see, unless specially authorised by the Papal See or the Apostolic legate. This Bull laid the groundwork of a bitter and protracted controversy between the Archbishops of Armagh and of Dublin, concerning the primatial right of the former to have his cross carried before him and to try ecclesiastical cases in the diocese of the latter. This contest, however, must not be confounded with that regarding the primacy, which did not arise until the 17th century.

Lordship of Ireland (1215–1539)

As the first Anglo-Norman adventurers who came to Ireland showed very little scruple in despoiling the churches and monasteries, Armagh suffered considerably from their depredations. When the English kings got a footing in the country, they began to intervene in the election of bishops and a contest arose between King John and Pope Innocent III regarding Eugene MacGillaweer, elected to the primatial see in 1203. This prelate was present at the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215 and died at Rome the following year. The English kings also began to claim possession of the temporalities of the sees during vacancies and to insist on the newly elected bishops suing them humbly for their restitution.
Primate Reginald, a Dominican, obtained a papal brief uniting the county of Louth to the See of Armagh. Primate Patrick O'Scanlan, also a Dominican, rebuilt to a large extent the cathedral of Armagh and founded a house for Franciscans in that city. Primate Nicholas MacMaelisu convened an important assembly of the bishops and clergy of Ireland at Tuam in 1291, at which they bound themselves by solemn oaths to resist the encroachments of the secular power. Primate Richard Fitz-Ralph contended publicly both in Ireland and England with the Mendicant Orders on the question of their vows and privileges.
A contest regarding the primacy of Armagh was carried on intermittently during these centuries by the Archbishops of Dublin and Cashel, especially the former, as the city of Dublin was the civic metropolis of the kingdom. During the English period, the primates rarely visited the city of Armagh, preferring to reside at the arch-episcopal manors of Dromiskin and Termonfechan, in the county of Louth, which was within the Pale. During the reign of Henry VIII, Primate Cromer, being suspected of heresy by the Holy See, was deposed in favour of Robert Wauchope, a distinguished theologian, who assisted at the Council of Trent. In the meantime, George Dowdall, a zealous supporter of Henry, had been elevated into the Church of Ireland See of Armagh by that monarch, but upon the introduction of the Book of Common Prayer in the reign of Edward VI, he left Ireland in disgust. In the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary I, Dowdall was appointed properly by the Pope on account of the great zeal he had shown against Protestantism. He survived his consecration only three months.