Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly Archidioecesis Casheliensis et Emeliensis Ard-Deoise Chaisil agus Imligh
Cathedral of the Assumption, Thurles
Location
Country	Ireland
Territory	Most of County Tipperary and part of County Limerick
Ecclesiastical province	Cashel and Emly
Statistics
Area	1,190 sq mi (3,100 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2018) 81,981 79,505 (97.0%)
Parishes	46
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin
Established	26 January 2015
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Assumption, Thurles
Patron saint	Ailbe
Secular priests	77 (as of 2018)
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Metropolitan Archbishop	Kieran O'Reilly, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly
Vicar General	Archdeacon Eugene Everard
Bishops emeritus	Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel
Map
Website
cashel-emly.ie

The Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly (Irish: Ard-Deoise Chaisil agus Imligh) is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church located in mid-western Ireland, and the metropolis of the eponymous ecclesiastical province. The cathedral church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral of the Assumption in Thurles, County Tipperary. The incumbent archbishop, as of 2024, is Kieran O'Reilly.

The original dioceses of Cashel and Emly were established by the Synod of Ráth Breasail in 1111.^{[citation needed]}

The Diocese of Cashel was elevated to the rank of ecclesiastical province, which was roughly co-extensive with the traditional province of Munster, by the Synod of Kells in 1152. Since the Papal Legate, Giovanni Paparoni, awarded the pallium to Donat O'Lonergan in 1158, his successors ruled the ecclesiastical province of Cashel – also sometimes known as Munster – until 26 January 2015.^[1]

The Diocese of Emly took its name from the eponymous village in County Tipperary, which was the location of the principal church of the Eóghanacht dynasty.^[2]

The original Roman Catholic dioceses of Cashel and Emly had been governed by the same bishop since 10 May 1718, with the Archbishop of Cashel acting as Apostolic Administrator of Emly, until they were united on 26 January 2015 to form the new metropolitan see of Cashel and Emly.^[1]

Following the Reformation in Ireland, the two Church of Ireland dioceses of Cashel and Emly were united in 1569. This union lasted until 1976, at which point the diocese of Cashel was merged into the Diocese of Cashel and Ossory, while the diocese of Emly was merged into the Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe.

The ecclesiastical province is one of four that make up the Catholic Church in Ireland; the others being Armagh, Dublin, and Tuam.

The six suffragan dioceses of the province are:

• Cloyne
• Cork and Ross
• Kerry
• Killaloe
• Limerick
• Waterford and Lismore

The archdiocese is divided into 46 parishes, which are spread across two counties: 35 in Tipperary and 11 in Limerick. The parishes were previously grouped into eight deaneries,^[3] but following a listening process led by Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, the deaneries were reorganised into eleven Parish Pastoral Combinations, operative from 27 November 2022.^[4][5][6]

As of April 2018, there were 79 priests in the diocese.^[7]

Aside from the cathedral town of Thurles, the main towns in the diocese are Ballina, Caherconlish, Cashel, Fethard, Templemore and Tipperary.

The following is a list of the ten most recent archbishops:

• Robert Laffan (1823–1833)
• Michael Slattery (1833–1857)
• Patrick Leahy (1857–1875)
• Thomas Croke (1875–1902)
• Thomas Fennelly (1901–1913)
• John Harty (1913–1946)
• Jeremiah Kinane (1946–1959)
• Thomas Morris (1959–1988)
• Dermot Clifford (1988–2014)
• Kieran O'Reilly (2014–present)

• Bishop of Emly
• Synod of Cashel

• Catholic-Hierarchy
• GCatholic

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Cashel". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

52°40′44″N 7°48′50″W / 52.67889°N 7.81389°W / 52.67889; -7.81389