Ireland was always outside the Roman Empire, due to a successful strategy, whereby the Gaelic kings would take hostage, of sons and daughters of nobility, of an invading menace. “Niall and the Nine Hostages” gives an insight into this tried and tested method of national defence. St. Patrick and his two sisters where taken hostage by King Niall for example. As a result of being outside of the Roman empire, Ireland did not develop the European model of the Catholic ecclesiastical diocese. Instead we had a monastic model which lasted until the time of the Synod of Rath Breasail of 1111. We even had a Celtic observance that began to decline in favour of the Roman observance after the Synod of Whitby in 664 called by the King of Oswiu in Northumbria. The change from the Celtic observance to the Roman observance came slowly as result of the persuasive efforts of St. Eunan.
The year 1631 saw the completion of Fr. Geoffrey Keating’s series of moral reflections on death and the conduct of human life, Trí bior-ghaoithe an bháis, and his treatise on the Mass, Eochair-sgiath an Aifrinn. A man called John MacErlean draws attention to the inclusion of significant early ecclesiastical records which would otherwise have been lost. Keating’s history is the only source for the Synod of Rath Breasail at the beginning of the twelfth century when Ireland was first divided into its modern dioceses format we have today.
The Synod of Rath Breasail established diocese under the seat of the bigger and more notable monasteries existing in Ireland at the time. The lesser monasteries became subsumed by the more important monastic centres within the confines of the newly established diocesan lines. For example we had the Lismore monastery which was an important centre of learning for the Gaels. The lesser known monasteries became more like parochial centres. Shortly after the death of diocesan promoter St. Malachy, the Synod of Kells followed in 1152 to iron out anomalies still extant, and the four archdiocese in Ireland came into effect. The Waterford diocese was a small diocese of mainly Danish folk and some members of the Déise folk. Lismore and Waterford were then separate diocese as the peoples where still so culturally diverse. It was only much later did the two diocese amalgamate, and Lismore being the bigger diocese was given the lead name of the Lismore and Waterford diocese. After the reformation period the names were switched to the Waterford and Lismore diocese, which still stand today.
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