Roman Catholic Diocese of Dromore  The Diocese of Dromore is a Roman Catholic diocese in Northern Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses which are subject to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh. The diocese is currently sede vacante. The most recent Bishop was the Most Reverend John McAreavey who received his episcopal consecration in 1999. The See covers portions of counties Down, Armagh and Antrim within Northern Ireland. It contains the city of Newry and the larger towns are Banbridge, Craigavon, Lurgan and Warrenpoint. The bishop's seat (cathedra) is located at the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick and St. Colman in Newry. The monastery of Dromore is believed to have been founded in the sixth century by St Colman (called also Mocholmóc), probably the first Abbot of Dromore. The first building was a small wattle and daub church on the northern bank of the River Lagan. The Diocese of Dromore was established through the reorganisation of the Irish Church in the late 12th century, possibly at the synod held in Dublin in 1192 by the papal legate, Múirges Ua hÉnna, Archbishop of Cashel. The diocese coincided with the territory of the Uí Echach Cobo, which later became the baronies of Upper and Lower Iveagh, and the lordship of Newry, County Down. During the 16th century Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church lost control of the old cathedral in Dormer to the Protestant Church of Ireland, which was wholly destroyed during the rebellion of 1641 and rebuilt twenty years later. In the 19th century, the Church chose the site of a new cathedral at Newry, the largest town of County Down, and a place of significant ecclesiastical importance as the site of an ancient monastery, situated at the head of Carlingford Lough. Work for building of Newry Cathedral begun in 1823 and was completed in 1829  by Dr. Michael Blake (bishop of Dromore 1833–1860) who had been Vicar-General of Dublin and the restorer of the Irish College at Rome. This cathedral was enlarged and beautified by Bishop Henry O'Neill, who succeeded Bishop Thomas MacGivern in 1901. Under Dr. McGivern's predecessor, Dr. John Pius Leahy, O.P. (1860–1890), a Dominican priory was founded on the Armagh side of Newry, and a church erected.