ABSTRACT
Apart from the Hiberno-Norse towns of Dublin and Waterford, the church in Ireland lacked a permanent diocesan structure in the eleventh century. The reason for this is largely to be found in the fact that Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire and thus lacked the administrative structure upon which the western church elsewhere based its organization. The circumstances surrounding the foundation of the diocese of Dublin early in the century are obscure, but Dublin would later play an important role in the events surrounding the introduction of a new diocesan system for the church throughout the whole country.
