Armagh, Bishopric of

ARMAGH, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient episcopal see in Ireland, traditionally reputed to have been founded by St. Patrick about 445, and now existing in connection with both the Roman Catholic and the Anglican Churches. It had exclusive metropolitan jurisdiction over the whole of Ireland until 1152, when a national council at Kells provided for the elevation of three other sees, those of Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam, to archiepiscopal rank, Armagh still holding the primacy. Of the earlier archbishops the most famous was St. Malachy (d. 1148; see Malachy O’Morgair, St.); the friend of St. Bernard and reformer of the Irish Church. Edward VI., in the course of his efforts to establish Protestantism, attempted to transfer the primacy to Dublin, and the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin is at present designated as “primate of Ireland,” while his colleague of Armagh has been known as “primate of all Ireland” since the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Roman Catholic succession was maintained with the greatest difficulty in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; one archbishop was assassinated, another died in the Tower of London, and a third (Plunket) was executed in 1681 on the charge of complicity in the “Popish Plot.” The diocese comprises Louth, the greater part of Armagh and Tyrone, and a section of Derry. The Anglican diocese included that of Clogher from 1850 to 1886 when Clogher was restored as a separate jurisdiction. For additional details on the earlier history, see Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland.