CASHEL E EMLY, ARCIDIOCESI DI - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. III, p. 574

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

CASHEL and EMLY, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In Ireland. The name of this metropolitan see is an English transliteration of the Gaelic *Caisel*, which means a stone fort. The Rock of Cashel, which gave its name to the diocese, was for several centuries the residence of the kings of Munster and contains the ruins of medieval ecclesiastical buildings. The origin of the diocese is generally placed in the 10th century. It became a metropolitan see in 1152.

Among its archbishops, special mention must be made of Dermot O’Hurley, who, after terrible tortures, was condemned to death for the faith in Dublin by the English authorities in 1583. The cause of his martyrdom is now under study at the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Since 1567 the diocese of Emly, founded by St. Ailbe in the 5th century, has been united with Cashel.

In the two united dioceses, there are 46 parishes, 88 churches, 170 diocesan priests, 55 regular religious, 7 houses of lay religious, and 20 communities of sisters. The Catholics in the archdiocese numbered 97,812 at the census of 1936. Its suffragan sees are: Cloyne, Cork, Emly, Kerry and Aghadoe, Killaloe, Limerick, Ross, Waterford and Lismore.

BIBL.: J. Lanigan, *Ecclesiastical history of Ireland*, 4 vols., Dublin 1822; S. Lewis, *Topographical Dictionary of Ireland*, 2 vols., London 1837; *Annals of the four Masters*, ed. J. O’Donovan, 7 vols., 2nd ed., Dublin 1856 (cf. vol. VII, Index, s. V. *Caisel*); W. M. Brady, *Episcopal succession of England, Scotland and Ireland*, 3 vols., Rome 1876-77 (v. index); J. F. Kennet, *Sources for the early history of Ireland*, I, New York 1920 (v. index); *Caisel in Munster*; *Irish Catholic Directory and Almanach* 1949, Dublin 1949, pp. 264-71.