Qualla: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sheila1988, CC BY-SA 4.0. It is a small jurisdiction by world standards. The current Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh has fewer than three hundred thousand parishioners, a single cathedral, and territory that stretches across the Northern Ireland border into the Republic. But its archbishop bears a title that has been disputed, defended, and ultimately confirmed by popes for sixteen centuries: Primate of All Ireland. The phrase is not honorary. It denotes the senior Catholic prelate of the island, with theoretical precedence over Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, the other three Irish metropolitan sees. That theoretical precedence has been argued about, by sword and pen and papal bull, since the 12th century. Saint Patrick founded the see around the year 445. The cathedral he built is gone. The argument it began is not.

Image: Sheila1988 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: The Hill Of Daire

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MarkusMark, CC BY-SA 3.0. The traditional founding story begins with a pagan chieftain named Daire who refused to let Saint Patrick build a church on Ard Mhacha, the prominent hill near his fort. Daire instead granted Patrick lower ground to the east. Some time later, Daire's horses died after grazing on ...

Image: MarkusMark | CC BY-SA 3.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: The Book Of Armagh

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Around the year 807, a scribe named Ferdomnach completed in the Armagh scriptorium an extraordinary illuminated manuscript that contained the only complete New Testament copied in Ireland during the early medieval period, along with three accounts of Patrick's life and his Confes...

Image: original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: Oliver Plunkett

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Of all the archbishops in sixteen centuries of succession, the most famous is Saint Oliver Plunkett, primate from 1669 to 1681. He served during the worst years of the penal laws, and spent much of his episcopate in hiding and on horseback, conducting confirmations in the open fi...

Image: original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: The Long Argument With Dublin

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. From the 12th century onward, the Archbishops of Armagh have been engaged in a long and frequently bitter argument with the Archbishops of Dublin over which see holds primacy. Both archbishops are called "primates": Armagh is Primate of All Ireland, Dublin is Primate of Ireland. ...

Image: original uploader was Baronplantagenet at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: Two Cathedrals Of Saint Patrick

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. The current Cathedral of Saint Patrick is the second on the site. Begun in 1838 by Archbishop William Crolly, the first Catholic primate to reside in Armagh since the Penal Laws were enforced, the cathedral took more than sixty years to complete. The foundation stone was laid on ...

Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Armagh: The Current See

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sheila1988, CC BY-SA 4.0. Eamon Martin has been Archbishop of Armagh since 2014. He was appointed coadjutor in 2013, succeeded Cardinal Seán Brady upon his retirement, and has led the Irish Catholic Church through a difficult period defined by clerical abuse revelations, falling Mass attendance, and the r...

Image: Sheila1988 | CC BY-SA 4.0