About

At the time of St. Patrick, Ireland was divided into approximately one hundred small kingdoms called tuatha. The present diocese of Achonry is closely associated with the former kingdom of Luighne.

The church of Achonry was founded in the sixth century by Saint Finnian of Clonard who left St. Nathy, a native of Luighne, in charge of it. He is mentioned in The Life of Saint Attracta where he is called Saint Nathy Cruimthir, meaning “the Priest”.

Saint Attracta founded a hospice in Killaraght and this convent continued until the suppression of monasteries in the sixteenth century. Throughout the diocese, a number of holy wells were dedicated to her, including Clogher, Ballaghaderreen.

In the century following the death of Patrick, monasteries sprang up around Ireland. Among the great monastic founders was Feichin of Fore, a native of Luighne who is said to have been trained by Nathy. He founded several monasteries including one at Ballysadare and another at Drumrat.

At the Synod of Kells in 1152, Luighne became a diocese. The bishop of the diocese was called the Bishop of Luighne until the very end of the fourteenth century when Thomas MacDonagh was the first to be called the Bishop of Achonry.

One of the bishops present at the Council of Trent was Eoghan O’Hart, a Dominican, who shortly after the opening of the council, was made Bishop of Achonry. He played a prominent part in the council’s deliberations. From his death in 1603, apart from 1641-45, there was no bishop in the diocese until 1707.

After the accession of Dr. M. Nicholas in 1818, the bishop resided in Ballaghaderreen. Ballaghaderreen Cathedral (The Cathedral Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nathy) became the cathedral of the diocese. It was commissioned in 1855 by Bishop Patrick Durcan and consecrated in November 1860.

The origins of the Diocese of Elphin can be traced to a monastic settlement in the town of Elphin, County Roscommon. According to local history sources, St. Patrick appointed his own silversmith, Asicus, as first Abbot Bishop in this monastic settlement. Under Asicus and his successors, the influence of the Elphin monastic settlement expanded to become the centre of the local Church.

When it was decided in 1111 AD to re-organise the structures of the Irish church to conform with the diocesan structure of the church in Europe, Elphin was designated diocesan status and her first Cathedral, standing at the eastern end of the town of Elphin, was dedicated to Beatae Mariae Virgini (Blessed Mary the Virgin).

By the late 15th / early 16th century, Elphin Diocese was home to at least eighteen religious houses. However great changes were to follow, starting with the religious revolution of the 16th century and during related persecution, the diocese lost many monasteries, convents and its Cathedral in Elphin.

By the 1870s, Catholics were free again to give public expression to their faith. In 1874, Bishop Laurence Gillooly rebuilt the diocese’s Cathedral, situating it in Sligo town. Once more it was dedicated to Our Lady under her title “Immaculate Conception”.

Marian devotion, dating from Patrician times, has always been part of the treasured heritage of the people of the diocese.

Bishop Gillooly also oversaw the building of Summerhill College, a diocesan college in Sligo dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. This was completed in 1892 and continues today as a second level school.

In Sligo and other parts of the diocese, during and since this time, secondary schools were also established by religious orders. Such orders and diocesan clergy were also to play a major role in establishing primary schools with a Catholic ethos in every parish in the diocese, greatly assisted by generations of dedicated teachers and parents.