GALWAY AND KILMACDUAGH, DIOCESE OF. — City in Ireland. The bishop is titular bishop of G. and K. and is perpetual administrator of the diocese of Kelfenora. G. and K. cover an area of 2,610 sq. km., with 59,742 inhabitants, of whom 59,373 are Catholics, with 30 parishes; of these, 12 are in the diocese of G., all in the same county except Shrule, which is in the county of Mayo; 10 are in the diocese of K., all in the county of G., and 8 in the diocese of Kelfenora, all in the county of Clare in the province of Cashel.
The parishes are served by 74 diocesan and 73 regular priests; there are one seminary, 11 male religious houses, and 17 female ones (1949).
K. had Colman as its first bishop, who founded a monastery there and died in 632; the diocese became a suffragan of Tuam. From 1653 to 1720 K. was governed only by vicars; it then resumed the regular episcopal succession until 1750, when it was united with the small diocese of Kilfenora; the bishop of K. was apostolic administrator of Kilfenora; subsequently, the arrangement alternated.
In the second half of the sixth century, Brandano founded the monastery of Annaghdown, whose abbot later became bishop. Within its territory was a fishing village called G., plundered from the ninth century by the Danes and in the thirteenth by the king of Münster; but, owing to its position and its commerce, it quickly flourished again. When, in 1324, the diocese of Annaghdown was united with that of Tuam, the inhabitants of G. did not rest until, in 1484, they obtained from the archbishop of Tuam exemption from his jurisdiction. Pope Innocent VIII granted that their church of S. Nicola should become a collegiate church, with a rector assisted by 8 vicars. All were deposed in 1551 and replaced by Protestants, but the Catholics then prevailed, until, on 26 April 1831, Pope Gregory XVI created the diocese of G. In 1866 the bishop of G. was appointed by Pope Pius IX apostolic administrator of K. and Kilfenora durante beneplacito Sanctae Sedis. In 1883 Pope Leo XIII united the three dioceses permanently; the bishop is at once bishop of G. and K. and apostolic administrator of Kilfenora.
BIBLI. E. A. D'Alton, G., in Cath. Eur., VI, pp. 373-74; Irish Catholic directory and almanac, Dublino 1950, pp. 246-52. Enrico Josi