The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ossory, Ireland
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ossory (Irish: Deoise Osraí) is a Roman Catholic diocese in eastern Ireland. It is one of three suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Dublin.
Its cathedral episcopal see is the Marian Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, in Kilkenny. The diocese was established in AD 1111. It is roughly co-extensive with the ancient Irish Kingdom of Ossory, whose first king, Óengus Osrithe, flourished in the 2nd century of the Christian era. His successors extended their boundaries to include part of Tipperary. In the 5th century, a neighbouring tribe, the Deisi, aided by the Corcu Loígde, conquered South Ossory, and for over a century, the Corcu Loígde chiefs ruled in place of the dispossessed Ossory chiefs. Early in the 7th century the ancient chiefs recovered much of their lost possessions, the foreigners were overcome, and the descendants of Aengus ruled once more. One of the greatest was Cerball mac Dúnlainge, prominent in the 9th century and distinguished in the Danish wars. |
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