Armagh
A hilltop church settlement in the north of Ireland which by the late seventh century was held to have been founded by Patrick. It is still the primatial see of Ireland.
Armagh (Irish Ard Macha) stands on a hill in what was the territory of the Airthir. Patrick’s own writings do not mention it. Muirchú, writing before 700, tells how a local lord named Dáire first gave Patrick a plot at the foot of the hill and later the hill itself, where the city of Armagh then stood (Muirchú, Life of Patrick 1.24). The Annals of Ulster enter its foundation under the year 444 (Annals of Ulster 444). The oldest copy of Patrick’s Confession is in the Book of Armagh, copied about 807 and now in Trinity College Dublin (Confession).
What happened here
- c. AD 432–461 or 493 (traditional), traditional datePatrick’s Mission to Ireland
Patrick, a Briton once enslaved in Ireland, returns there as a bishop and stays for life, baptising and ordaining clergy. Almost all that is known of him comes from his own two writings; his dates rest on annals compiled much later.
Primary sources
The Annals of Ulster
- Annals of Ulster 444celt.ucc.ie