Tuam, archiepiscopal diocese of

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Tuam, archiepiscopal diocese of. Though this Irish see had bishops in the early 12th cent., the Council of Kells-Mellifont (1152) established it as an archbishopric, carved out of Armagh province, with six dioceses in the far west of Ireland. As late as the 16th cent. it was still part of ecclesia inter hibernos and all its bishops were Irish. Its cathedral, however, probably had a secular chapter after the continental pattern from the 1190s. In 1593 catholic Archbishop James O'Hely went to Spain to ask for aid against Elizabethan adventurers. Tuam is still a catholic archbishopric, but in 1839 the Anglican province of Tuam was reunited with Armagh. It thus ceased to be an archbishopric; the diocese now includes Killala and Achonry. There are cathedrals at Tuam and Killala. St Mary's Anglican cathedral at Tuam is 19th cent., but incorporates a barrel-vault chancel and a fine east window of the 12th–14th-cent. church.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

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