LIMERICK, Diocese of
Limerick is a diocese and the county town of the homonymous county in Ireland. It comprises most of County Limerick and a small part of County Clare.
It has a population of 117,560 inhabitants, of whom 114,630 are Catholics. It comprises 48 parishes served by 119 diocesan priests and 165 regular clergy; a diocesan seminary (St. Munchin's Diocesan Seminary) and the Sacred Heart College, run by the Jesuits; 12 male religious communities and 22 female ones.
After St. Patrick, who evangelized the region, came St. Senan, abbot of Scattery Island, and St. Munchin, founder of a monastery and a school at Mungret, which soon became very flourishing. The Danes occupied Limerick, but were expelled at the end of the 10th century by Brian Boru. Limerick became the capital of the Kingdom of Thomond and had its own bishop dependent on Canterbury. Around 1110, Gillebert, abbot of Bangor, became bishop of Limerick; the boundaries of the diocese were determined at the Synod of Rathbreasail. Under Bishop Donatus O'Brien (1179-1207), St. Mary's Cathedral was erected and Scattery Island was united to Limerick. In 1460, Bishop Cornelius O'Dea distinguished himself. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Limerick suffered greatly and from 1702 to 1720 the see was vacant. During the episcopate of Bishop Ryan (d. 1864), many churches and convents were built and in 1856 the first stone of the new cathedral dedicated to St. John was laid.