Bishop of Ardagh

[1][2] Tradition states that a monastery was founded at Ardagh by St Patrick, and that his nephew, St. Mel (died c.490), was its bishop or abbot.

Although there is no historical or archaeological evidence to support it, Mel is regarded as the founder of the see.

At the subsequent Synod of Kells in 1152, its area was reduced to the territory of the Conmaicne.

There are remains of an eighth- or ninth-century church at Ardagh, which is known as St. Mel's Cathedral, although it dates from three centuries after the saint's death, and predates the introduction of a diocesan system in Ireland.

Until the mid 19th-century, the parish church of Ballymahon had served as a pro-cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise.