Part of it is probably because of the location of Armagh being in the North. Because of its association with St. Patrick (and some early medieval political considerations), Armagh has been the preeminent see in Ireland for over a millennium, beginning in a time when Dublin didn't even exist yet. By the time Dublin emerged as a capital wi…
Part of it is probably because of the location of Armagh being in the North. Because of its association with St. Patrick (and some early medieval political considerations), Armagh has been the preeminent see in Ireland for over a millennium, beginning in a time when Dublin didn't even exist yet. By the time Dublin emerged as a capital with actual administrative power over the whole island rather than just a de jure control of Ireland on paper, the English who controlled Dublin had become protestants. To impose partition (the 6 counties in the north being split from the 32 in the south) by putting the north (and Armagh) in a separate territory while making Dublin the capital of Irish Catholicism would have been intolerable. It's a bit like if Baltimore had been the hub of American Catholicism for centuries before New York or DC even existed or had any real importance.
Part of it is probably because of the location of Armagh being in the North. Because of its association with St. Patrick (and some early medieval political considerations), Armagh has been the preeminent see in Ireland for over a millennium, beginning in a time when Dublin didn't even exist yet. By the time Dublin emerged as a capital with actual administrative power over the whole island rather than just a de jure control of Ireland on paper, the English who controlled Dublin had become protestants. To impose partition (the 6 counties in the north being split from the 32 in the south) by putting the north (and Armagh) in a separate territory while making Dublin the capital of Irish Catholicism would have been intolerable. It's a bit like if Baltimore had been the hub of American Catholicism for centuries before New York or DC even existed or had any real importance.