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Counties Tipperary & Limerick, Ireland
Diocese of Emly
Emly
description from Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837
Note: Roman Catholic parish records for those parishes that belong to the Diocese of Cashel and Emly are not available to the public
EMLY
This place,
noticed under the name of "Imlagh," by Ptolemy, as one of
the three principal towns of Ireland, is of very remote antiquity, and was
formerly an important city and the seat of a diocese. A monastery of canons
regular was founded here by St. Ailbe, or Alibeus, who became
its first abbot, and dying in 527, was interred in the abbey. His successors
obtained many privileges for the inhabitants. The abbey and town were frequently
pillaged and burnt. King John, in the 17th of his reign, granted the privilege
of holding markets and fairs in the town, which, since the union of the see
of Emly with that of Cashel in 1568, has gradually declined, and is now comparatively
an insignificant village, containing only 115 houses. It has a constabulary
police station, and fairs are held on May 21st and Sept. 22nd.
Among
the successors of St. Ailbe in the See of Emly, previously to the landing
of the English, and who were styled indifferently abbots or bishops, were
several who exercised sovereign power at Cashel, as Kings of Munster. Olchobhair
Mac Cionoatha, who in 847 succeeded to the prelacy, and to throne of Munster,
aided by Lorcan, son of the King of Leinster, killed 1200 of the Danes
who had plundered the monastery during the preceding year; and 1700 were slain
in a subsequent battle, in which Olchobhair was killed. In 1123, during the
prelacy of Moelmorda, the abbey was plundered and the mitre of St.
Ailbe, which had been preserved for many ages, was burnt. Bishop Christian,
who succeeded to the prelacy in 1236, was a great benefactor to the cathedral
church, in which Bishop Henley, who died in 1542, erected a college
of secular priests. The last bishop of this see, prior to its union with that
of Cashel, to which the archbishoprick had been previously transferred, was
Reymund de Burgh, after whose death, in 1562, it remained vacant till
1568, when it was united by act of parliament to the archbishoprick of Cashel,
during the prelacy of Archbishop Mac Caghwell.
The diocese is one of the eleven that constitute the archdiocese, or ecclesiastical province, of Cashel: it comprises an estimated superficies of 138,050 statute acres, of which 86,150 are in the county of Limerick, and 51,900 in that of Tipperary. The chapter consists of a dean, precentor, chancellor, archdeacon, treasurer, and the four prebendaries of Dollardstown, Killenellick, Doon, and Lattin. It comprehends 17 benefices, of which nine are unions of two or more parishes, and eight are single parishes; of these, four are in the patronage of the crown, and 13 in that of the archbishop of Cashel. The total number of parishes is 44, of which 39 are rectories and vicarages, three perpetual curacies, and two without provision for the cure of souls; there are eleven churches and four other places in which divine service is performed, and nine glebe-houses.
In
the Roman Catholic divisions the diocese is united with the archdiocese
of Cashel, and contains 31 chapels
See
Emly parish
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