TUAM
80
TUAM
New Catholic Cathedral, Tuam
or canals. The country east of these lakes is a great
undulating plain, mostly of arable land, interspersed
here and there with bogs and smaller lakes. The
country west of the great lakes is of entirely different
character. It is nearly all rugged and heathery, with
ranges of hills rising steeply from the lakes, especially
from the shores of Lough iVIask on one side, and from
the shores of the Atlantic Ocean on the other, forming
many lofty peaks with long-drawn valleys where the
streams rushing down widen into deep and fishful
lakes, which, especially in Connemara, attract fisher-
men from all parts of the United Kingdom. The
population of this
rugged lakeland is
sparse and poor,
but the scenery
very picturesque,
especially towards
the west, where
the bays of the
ocean penetrate
far in between the
mountains, as at
the beautiful Kil-
lary Bay. This
western coast is
bordered by many
w i n d-s wept isl-
ands, affording a
precarious suste-
nance to the inhab-
itants. Of these
the chief are the
Isles of Aran in
Galway Bay, and
farther off, on the
north-western
coast, Inishark, Inisboffin, and Inisturk, Clare Island
and Achill Island — all of which are inhabited and
have schools and churches. There are three priests
on the .\ran Islands, one on Inisboffin, one on Clare
Island, and three on Achill, which has a population of
about 6000 souls.
The archdiocese comprises seven rural deaneries — Tuam, Dunmore, Claremorris, Ballinrobe, Castlebar, Westport, and Clifden. There are three vicars-gen- eral who preside over three divisions of the archdio- cese which from time immemorial have been histori- cally distinct, that is Galway east of the Corrib ; West Galway, or the Kingdom of Connemara, and the Mayo portion. There are 143 secular priests, of whom eight are usually employed in the seminary. There are only two regulars, properlj' so called, who reside in the Augustinian monastery of Ballyhaunis; two priests of the Order of St. Camillus have charge of the hospice for infirm clergA', Moyne Park, Bally- glunin, Galway, and four secular clerg\' of a prepara- tory college for the .Vfrican Missions in the Co. Mayo, generously given for the purpose by Count Blake of Cloughballymore. There are four houses of the Christian Brothers, and one of the Brothers of the Christian schools. There are eleven mona.steries of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis, who were founded by Archbishop MacHale to counteract the efforts of proselytizing institutions and to teach agri- culture to their pupils. Of these schools the most successful has been the .\gricultural College of Movmt Bellew, which is working under the .\grirultural De- partment. There are three Presentation convents, and ten convents of the Sisters of Mercy with schools. St. Jarlath's Diocesan Seminarj' has more than a hun- dred resident students.
St. Patrick in Tuam. — St. Patrick came into the Diocese of Tuam from .\irtech in north-west Roscom- mon most likely in a. d. 440. and thence travelled almost due west from .\ghamore, where he founded his first cliurcli.on thesuiiimit of Croaghpatrick. We
have the names of some twelve churches which he es-
tablished in this district; it is e.xpressly stated that he
placed bishops over several of these churches — at
Cella Senes near Ballyhaunis; at Kilbenin, where he
placed St. Benignus; at Donaghpatrick, which he gave
to Bishop Felartus; at Aghagower, where he placed
St. Senach, whom he called "Agnus Dei" on account
of his meekness. His sojourn for forty days on the
summit of Croaghpatrick has been described in the
article Croagh Patrick. During the subsequent
centuries the successors of Patrick often visited the
Patrician churches in Connacht and received both
homage and tribute from the clergy and the people.
They claimed a special jurisdiction over the twelve or
fourteen Patrician churches in Tuam, even over the
oratory on the summit of the holy mountain. Later
these claims became exorbitant and were resisted by
the archbishops of Tuam, especially after the Synod
of Kells (1152), and the controversy was carried to
Rome and finally decided in their favour. The pri-
mates, however, were allowed the rents of certain
church lands in Tuam, but these claims they after-
wards remitted in exchange for lands in the north of
Ireland.
The .\rchdiocese of Tuam now comprises the terri- tories of five of those ancient dioceses which at differ- ent periods were united to the original Diocese of Tuam. This original diocese, which may be taken as corresponding roughly with the modern deanerj- of Tuam, comprised the ancient territory known as the Conmaicne of Dunmore, and also the Ciarraigi of Loch na n-.\irneadh, as well as a portion of Cor- camogha and the Sodan territorj-. When the O'Conor kings of the twelfth century came to be the chief rulers of Connacht, and for a time of all Ireland, they re- sided mostly at Tuam and sought to control the spiritual as they did the temporal rulers of their prin- cipality. There can be no doubt that it was the influ- ence of Turlough Mor, then King of Ireland, which induced the prelates and papal legate at Kells in 1152 to make his own Diocese of Tuam the archiepiscopal and metropolitan see of the province. This original See of Tuam was founded about a. D. 520 by St. Jar- lath, son of Loga, the disciple of St. Benin of Kil- bannon, and the preceptor for a time at Cloonfush near Tuam of St. Brendan the Navigator. The orig- inal cathedral known as TempuU Jarlath stood on the site of the present Protestant cathedral. After Jar- lath's death his remains were enshrined and pre- served in a church built for the purpose and called Tempull na Serine, close to the spot on which the Catholic cathedral now stands. Around this cathe- dral, which was begun by Dr. OHver Kelly in 1826, are grouped in a circle all the other ecclesiastical build- ings — the college, the Presentation convent and schools, the IVIercy convent and schools of the Sisters of Mercy, the Christian Brothers' House and schools, and "the recently-erected archiepiscopal residence.
The ancient See of Annaghdoicn grew out of the monastery founded by St. Brendan for his sister St. Briga. Its jurisdiction extended over O'Flaherty's country around Lough Corrib and comprised in all some seventeen parishes. The see was independent down to the death of Thomas O'Mellaigh in 1250, when .\rchbi.'<hop MacFlionn seized and held it with the consent of the king. For the next 2.50 years a pro- longed and unseemly conflict was carried on between the archhi.shops and abbots, the former declaring that Annaghdown had been reduced by the pope and the king to the rank of a parish church, whikt the abbots stoutly maintained their independence. In 14S4 the wardenshii) of Galway was established, and all the parishes on the south and west around the lake were placed under the warden's quasi-episcopal jurisdic- tion, Tuam still retaining eight jiarishes to tlie east of the lake. In IS.'JO the wardenship was abolished, and
