ABSTRACT
The synod of Ráith Bressail, which met near Borrisoleigh (County Tipperary) in the year 1111, is, by far, the most important of all the synods associated with the twelfth-century Church Reform movement in Ireland. While the synod of Cashel, which preceded it by ten years, has been seen as introducing reform, Ráith Bressail has been perceived to be revolutionary. It sought nothing less than to bring about a complete change in the way the church in Ireland was administered. Up to the time it was convened the church did not have the administrative structure (a few Hiberno-Norse cities excepted) that existed in most of the rest of the Western church-a hierarchical, territorially based system of dioceses under the control of bishops. It was precisely that system that the synod would now set about introducing.
