A Chronological Table of the Catholic Primates of Ireland

With the Years in Which They Succeeded to the Metropolitan Sees of Armagh, Dublin, Cashell and Tuam

ARCHBISHOPS OF ARMAGH.

Names.

Number.

Year of Succession.

 

 

 

St. Patrick

1

433

Bineen

2

465

Jarlath

3

465

Cormack

4

482

Dubtach I.

5

497

Ailild I.

6

513

Ailild II.

7

526

Dubtach II.

8

536

David McGuire

9

548

Feidlimid

10

551

Cairlan

11

578

Eochaid

12

588

MacLaisir

13

610

Thomian

14

623

Segene

15

661

Flanfebla

16

688

Suibhny

17

715

Congusa

18

730

Cele-Peter

19

750

Ferdachry

20

758

Fœndelach

21

768

Dubdalethy

22

778

Affiat

23

793

Cudiniscus

24

794

Conmach

25

798

Torlach

26

807

Nuad

27

808

Flangus

28

812

Artrigius

29

823

Eugenius

30

833

Faranan

31

834

Diarmuid

32

848

Facthna

33

852

Ainmire

34

874

Catasach I.

35

875

Maelcob

36

883

Mael-Brigid

37

885

Joseph

38

927

Mael Patrick

39

936

Catasach II.

40

937

Muredach

41

957

Dubdalethy II.

42

966

Murechan

43

998

Maelmury

44

1004

Amalgaid

45

1021

Dubdalethy III.

46

1050

Cumasach

47

1065

Mælisa

48

1065

Donald

49

1092

Celsus

50

1106

Maurice

51

1129

Malachy

52

1134

Gelasius

53

1137

Cornelius

54

1174

Gilbert

55

1175

Mælisa O'Carrol

56

1184

Amlave

57

1185

Thos. O'Connor

58

1186

Eugene

59

1206

Luke Nettervill

60

1220

Donat Fidobara

61

1227

Albert of Cologn

62

1249

Reiner

63

1247

Abm. O'Connelan

64

1257

P. O'Scanlain

65

1262

Nicholas M'Melissa

66

1272

John Taaf

67

1311

Walter de Jorse

68

1306

Roland Jorse

69

1306

Stephen Segrave

70

1332

David Hiraghty

71

1334

Richd. Fitzralph

72

1347

Milo Sweetman

73

1361

John Colton

74

1382

Nichs. Fleming

75

1404

John Swayne

76

1417

John Prene

77

1439

John Mey

78

1444

John Bole

79

1457

John Foxalls

80

1475

Ed. Connesburg

81

1477

Octav. de Palatio

82

1480

John Kite

83

1513

Geo. Cromer

84

1522

George Dowdall

85

1543

Robert Wauchop

86

1552

Richard Creagh

87

1585

E. M'Gauran, m.

88

1598

Peter Lombard

89

1625

Hugh M'Cawell

90

1626

Pat. Fleming

91

1631

Hugh O'Reilly

92

 

Edward O'Reilly

93

 

Oliv. Plunket

94

 

Dom. M'Guire

95

1708

Hugh M'Mahon

96

1737

Bernard M'Mahon

97

 

Ross M'Mahon

98

 

Nic. O'Reilly

99

1758

Anthony Blake

100

1787

Richard O'Reilly

101

 

Patrick Curtis

102

 

BISHOPS OF DUBLIN.

Names.

Number.

Year of Succession.

 

 

 

Livinus

1

633

St. Wiro

2

650

Disibod

3

675

Gualafer

4

 

St. Rumold

5

775

Sedulius

6

785

Cormac

7

unk

Donat

8

1074

Patrick

9

1084

Dn. O'Haingley

10

1095

Sm. O'Haingley

11

1121

ARCHBISHOPS OF DUBLIN.

Names.

Number.

Year of Succession.

 

 

 

Gregory

1

1161

Laurence Toole

2

1172

John Comyn

3

1182

H. de Londres

4

1218

Luke

5

1255

Falk. de Saunford

6

1271

J. de Derlington

7

1284

John de Saundford

8

1294

W. de Hotham

9

1297

R. de Ferings

10

1306

John Leek

11

1313

A. de Bicknor

12

1349

John de St Paul

13

1362

Thomas Minot

14

1375

R. de Wikeford

15

1390

Richd. Northallis

16

1395

Thomas Cranley

17

1397

Richd. Talbot

18

1417

Nicholas Tregury

19

1449

John Walton

20

1473

Walter Fitzsimons

21

1484

William Rokeby

22

1581

Hugh Inge

23

1528

John Allen

24

1534

Geo. Brown, ap.

25

1554

Hugh Carwin, ap

26

1559

Mat. of Oviedo

27

1600

E. Matthews

28

1611

Thos. Fleming

29

1660

Pet. Talbot

30

1680

Patrick Russel

31

1692

Pet. Creagh

32

1700

Edwd. Byrne

33

1723

Edwd. Murphy

34

1728

Luke Fagan

35

1733

John Linegar

36

1757

Richard Lincoln

37

1763

Patrick Fitzsimons

38

1769

John Carpenter

39

1786

John Th. Troy

40

1787

D. Murray

41

1824

(1 A.) Saint Patrick, ten years after building the Metropolitan church of Armagh, committed it to the care of Bineen, or Benignus, his scholar, who resigned it soon after to Iarlath. He, dying in 482, was succeeded by Cormack, so that St. Patrick saw three of his successors in his see of Armagh, before his death, on the 17th of March, 493.

(14 A.) To Thomian, or Tomian, and the other clergy of Ireland, was written that epistle from the Roman clergy during the vacancy of the Roman see, in 639, concerning the time of observing Easier, of which a part is extant in Bede's Ecclesiastical History.

(20 A.) In Artruge, or Artry's primacy, the Ultonian territories were much disturbed by the invasions of the Danes. Armagh was for a month in their possession, in 830.

(36 A.) Maolbridy, the son of Tornan, or Dornan Comorban to St. Patrick and Columbkille, was of the blood royal of Ireland. His learning and virtues were so eminent as to obtain for him the appellation of the ornament of Europe. In his time, Armagh was thrice plundered by the Danes.

(52 A.) St. Malachy, called in Irish Maolmedoc ua Morgair, resigned his see to Giolla-Iosa, or servant of Jesus, strangely metamorphosed by Latin writers into the seemingly Greek name Gelasius, whereby the Irish etymology is almost lost, as is the case with many other names too. St. Malachy, after establishing a monastery of regular canons in Down, undertook a journey to Rome, but died in the arms of St. Bernard, his biographer, in the Abbey of Clairvaux, in France.

(1 D.) Of the bishops of Dublin, no regular succession can be at present made out before the time of Donat, the Dane, in 1074. Hestaunus, indeed, mentions the few that are above recorded, before that time. Notwithstanding the silence of our records, it is very probable that St. Patrick, after founding a church there, in 448, established a form of ecclesiastical government for it, similar to that which he instituted in other parts of the island.

(2 D.) The illustrious and patriotic St. Laurence O'Toole, was the son of Martough O'Toole, prince of Imaly, by Inghean ee Bhrian, or daughter of the royal house of O'Brien. In 1167, he assisted at a convention of the clergy and princes of Leah-Cuin, or north of Ireland, at Athboy,

wherein many laws for the government of church and state were made. St. Laurence animated the inhabitants of Dublin to a vigorous defence against the Anglo-Norman invaders, under Strongbow, until the city was forced to surrender. He next prevailed on Roderic, and the princes of Ireland, to join in a conspiracy against the invaders; but after investing Dublin by land and water with 30,000 men, and 30 ships, the Irish princes were compelled to raise the siege. He, with the rest of the clergy, assisted at a national council, held in Cashel, by order of Henry II. "Having, out of zeal," says Cambrensis, "for his country's service, fallen under Henry the Second's displeasure, Laurence was a long time detained in France and England, by that politic prince." In this latter place, at Becket's shrine in Canterbury, our patriot was attacked by a villain, who, perhaps, wishing, like the murderers of Thomas a Becket, to ingratiate himself with Henry, by a similar act of assassination, rushed on the archbishop as he was saying mass there, and knocked him down with a blow which fractured his skull. He died at Auge, in Normandy, in 1180, and was canonized by pope Honorius the III. in 1225.

(80 A.) Archbishop Dowdall strenuously opposed the innovations of Henry VIII. and of his complaisant servant, then the archbishop of Dublin, the well known apostate George Brown. Brown was originally an Augustinian friar, of London, and provincial of that order in England. He was advanced to the see of Dublin, by Henry VIII. in 1535. He was the first Roman Catholic prelate who embraced the reformation in Ireland. Miles M'Grath, archbishop of Cashell, Staples, bishop of Meath, Lancaster, bishop of Kildare, Travers, bishop of Laughlin, and Coyne, bishop of Limerick, afterwards apostatized, and abjured the Catholic religion; Lancaster and Travers were, in turn, ejected from their sees, in Queen Mary's reign; as they, like the other apostles of the Reformation, took wives to themselves. Coyne, or Quin, was originally a Dominican friar; M'Grath was a Franciscan before his perversion.

(87 A.) Richard Creagh was poisoned in the tower of London in 1585, and his successor, Edward M'Gauron, was murdered in his confessional, by a soldier, in 1598, as is asserted by David Roth, the learned bishop of Ossory, in his "Processus Martyrialis." To these illustrious martyrs, we may add the (92. A.) fourth in succession after M'Gauran; viz. the learned and holy martyr, Oliver Plunket, who, in 1679, was taken to Dublin, detained as a close prisoner there, and after being transmitted from thence to Newgate in London, was ultimately drawn on a sledge to Tyburn, that theatre of Catholic martyrdom since the holy Reformation, and hanged, beheaded, and quartered, on the 1st of July, 1681, as may be seen more at large, in the Tripartite Theology of Richard Archdeakin, an erudite Jesuit of Kilkenny, printed at Antwerp, in 1682.

(101 A.) Doctor R. O'Reilly, having completed his studies at Rome, returned to his native country, and, in 1780, was consecrated coadjutor bishop to Doctor O'Keefe, the predecessor of the present learned and pious Doctor Delany, in the diocess of Kildare and Leighlin. In 1782, Doctor O'Reilly was made administrator of the arch-diocess of Armagh; and on the death of the late Doctor Blake, in 1787, was promoted to the metropolitan chair of that primatial see.

(40 D.) Doctor J. T. Troy was born in the city of Dublin, and was, at an early age, affiliated into the order of St. Dominic, an order which has rendered itself eminently illustrious for adorning the Christian Church with a brilliant galaxy of popes, prelates, and preachers, equally distinguished for their pious zeal in cultivating the Lord's vinevards, as for the purity of their principles and edifying sanctity of their lives. In order to qualify himself for the mission, he went to Rome. There, in the college of SS. PP. Sixtus and Clement de Urbe, he spent twenty-one years. That he attained to literary pre-eminence in the various departments of his under

graduate course, is fully evinced by his being twice dignified with the honour of filling the rectorial chair of that celebrated seminary. From this academic retreat he was at last called forth to the active labours of the Irish mission. In 1776, Doctor Troy was promoted to the see of Ossory, then vacant by the death of Doctor Thomas Burke, also a native of Dublin, a member of the Dominican order, and author of the celebrated work called "Hibernia Dominicana." Doctor Troy, in 1786, was translated to the archdiocess of Leinster, and took possession of the metropolitan and primatial chair, in his native city of Dublin, on the 15th February, 1787, leaving the vacated see of Ossory to Doctor John Dunne, who, dying in 1789, was succeeded by Doctor James Lanigan, the present truly religious, learned, and laborious bishop of that diocess.

ARCHBISHOPS OF CASHELL.

Names.

Year of Succession.

 

 

Cormac M'Cullinan

908

Donat. O'Lonorgan I.

1158

Donald O'Hulluchan

1182

Maurice ---------

1191

Matthew O'Heney

1206

Donat. O'Lonorgan II.

1215

Donat. O'Lonorgan III.

1223

Marian O'Brien

1238

David MacKelly

1252

David MacCarwill

1289

Stephen O'Brogan

1302

Maur. MacCarwill

1316

William Fitzjohn

1326

John O'Carroll

1329

Walter le Rede

1330

John O'Gradag

1345

Ralph Kelley

1361

George Roch

1362

Thomas O'Carroll

1373

Philip de Torrington

1380

Peter Hackett

1406

Richard O'Hedian

1440

John Cantwell

1482

David Creagh

1503

Maur Fitzgerald

1523

Edmund Butler

1550

Roland Baron

1561

James M'Caghwell

1570

Mau. Fitzgibbon, died

1578

Derm. O'Hurlay, mart.

1583

Thomas Walsh, sat

1649

Christ. Butler, Kilcash

1757

Jam. Butler, Dunboyne

----

Jam. Butler, Ballyragget

1792

Tho. Bray, present Archbishop

ARCHBISHOPS OF TUAM.

Names.

Year of Succession.

 

 

St. Jarlath

540

Edan O'Hoisin

1085

Catholicus O'Dubhai

1201

Felix O'Ruadan

1235

Marian O'Laghnan

1249

Florence Mac Flin

1250

Walter de Salern

1258

Thomas O'Conor

1279

Stephen de Fulburn

1288

Willm. de Birmingham

1311

Malachy Mac Aeda

1348

Thomas O'Carroll

1365

John O'Grada

1371

Gregory --------

1384

Gregory O'Moghan

1386

William O'Cormacair

1394

Maurice O'Kelley

1407

John Tabynghe

1411

Cornelius --------

----

John Batterley

1436

Thomas O'Kelly

1441

John de Burgo

1450

Donat. O'Murry

1484

William Shioy

1501

Philip Pinson

1505

Maurice de Portu

1513

Thomas O'Mullaly

1536

Christopher Bodekin

1570

Nicholas Skerret

1583

Flor. Conroy

1629

John Burke

1649

Marc. Skerret, sat in

1756

Phil. Philips

----

Boet. Egan, d.

1798

Edw. Dillon

1809