Orthodox Christian dating in Ireland
Orthodox dating in Ireland: Leeson Park and Arbour Hill in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Drogheda, and how to find a spouse. Free, no subscription.
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- Romanian
- Greek
- Moscow Patriarchate
- Monastery
Short answer
Ireland got two Orthodox bishops in one year. On 29 February 2024 the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church founded the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of Ireland and Iceland, with its seat in Dublin; Bishop Nectarie was elected on 25 October 2024 and enthroned in Dublin on 11 January 2025, and his cathedral is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Leeson Park in Ballsbridge, with the diocesan centre of St John the Baptist at Drimnagh Castle on the Long Mile Road and eighteen parishes from Balbriggan to Waterford. Three weeks later, on 22 March 2024, the Ecumenical Patriarchate separated Ireland from the Archdiocese of Thyateira and founded the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland and Exarchate of the Celtic Sea; Metropolitan Iakovos was enthroned in Dublin on 18 May 2024, and the Metropolis sits with the Greek church of the Annunciation at 46 Arbour Hill in Stoneybatter. The Diocese of Sourozh of the Moscow Patriarchate was there before both, with the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on Mount Argus Road in Dublin and ten communities from Letterkenny to Wexford under its dean, Archpriest Michael Nasonov. A women's monastery of the Life-Giving Spring stands at Shannonbridge, a few kilometres from St Ciarán's Clonmacnoise.
cana.love, the site this page belongs to, is free, made for people who want marriage rather than a match, and built on a form that asks what the coffee hour at Leeson Park or on Mount Argus Road would ask you: which parish, how many Sundays a month, what you do about fasting, which of twelve Orthodox jurisdictions is yours. A Romanian from Blanchardstown and an Irish convert from Galway begin from what they keep. A Chilean company runs it; it works in five languages, English first, and Romanian is not one of them.
It is not an Orthodox-only site; a section below says so plainly.
Orthodox Christians in Ireland
The Romanians have the most parishes of any Orthodox church in the country's directories, and their diocese says how it grew: Romanian Orthodox faithful arrived in numbers in the first decades of this century, were served first by missionary priests, then organised into canonical parishes, and by 2024 were numerous enough for a diocese of their own. In Dublin the diocese has the cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Leeson Park, the diocesan centre at Drimnagh Castle, the parish of the Annunciation and the Sunday of the Romanian Saints on Western Way in Broadstone, St George and St Columba on Blakestown Way in Blanchardstown, St Brendan and St Joseph the New on Mount Street Crescent, and a parish of All Saints and St Dionisie Erhan in Dublin 5; outside it, Balbriggan, Navan, Newbridge, Monasterevin, Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork at Passage West, Limerick, Nenagh, Newcastle West, Longford and Galway. Every parish carries an Irish saint beside a Romanian one: St Patrick with St Calinic in Cork, St Brigid with St Nicholas in Galway, St Munchin with the Three Hierarchs in Limerick, St Colman with Pentecost in Newbridge, St Kevin of Glendalough with Thomas Sunday in Waterford, St Ciarán with the Life-Giving Spring at the monastery.
The Greeks have the newest diocese. The church of the Annunciation at Arbour Hill, behind Collins Barracks, was the Greek Orthodox church of Dublin under the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain until 2024; since 22 March 2024 it is the seat of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland and Exarchate of the Celtic Sea, whose jurisdiction the Ecumenical Patriarchate defined as the whole island, Republic and Northern Ireland both. Metropolitan Iakovos was enthroned there on 18 May 2024 by Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira; the Metropolis lists three priests and a deacon, and it keeps a Christmas bazaar and an Agape celebration at Pascha on its calendar.
Orthodox Studies Institute, 2024; figures from the United States, not Ireland's
The Russians are the Diocese of Sourozh, and they are everywhere the Romanians are not yet. Sts Peter and Paul on Mount Argus Road in Dublin 6W is the mother church, with three priests and a deacon under Fr Michael Nasonov, the dean of the Republic; the communities of Cork, Drogheda and Letterkenny are his too, Athlone and Limerick are Fr Nikolai Kobets's, Galway, Sligo and Castlebar Fr Ioann Kazadojev's, Wexford Fr Grigore Oboroceanu's. They worship where they are welcome: in St Peter's Church of Ireland at Carrigrohane in Cork and in St Peter's Church of Ireland on Peter's Hill in Drogheda, in a neighbourhood centre in Galway, in an industrial unit on the Ballysimon Road in Limerick, in a community centre in Athlone, in the Catholic church of the Immaculate Conception in Wexford, in St Anne's in Sligo.
The people filling the newer parishes have been counted, though not here. The Orthodox Studies Institute surveyed twenty American parishes across six jurisdictions and reported, of the converts received since 2013, that two thirds were under forty at their reception, that people in their thirties outnumbered every other decade, and that 44 percent were single when they came in.
Those are American figures, and no Irish count of the same kind is on this page; but the person they describe is at the coffee hour on Mount Argus Road or at Arbour Hill: raised Catholic or Church of Ireland or nothing, received as an adult, English-speaking, not yet married. The Sourozh communities that worship in borrowed Church of Ireland naves, the Metropolis that named itself for the Celtic Sea and the Romanian parishes that put St Patrick, St Brigid and St Kevin in their names have all made room for that person.
Three jurisdictions cover the country on this page. The Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of Ireland and Iceland has its cathedral and centre in Dublin, eighteen parishes and communities in Ireland, one in Reykjavík and the monastery at Shannonbridge. The Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland has its seat at Arbour Hill and jurisdiction over the whole island. The Diocese of Sourozh has Sts Peter and Paul in Dublin and ten communities across the Republic. The Antiochian archdiocese's parish map was not read for this page, and Northern Ireland is not on it.
Where the community gathers
Ireland's Orthodox gather in Dublin, in the towns of Leinster around it, in Cork and Limerick, and in Galway.
Dublin
Dublin holds six of the fourteen parishes on this page and the seats of all three jurisdictions. Leeson Park in Ballsbridge, Mount Street Crescent in Dublin 2 and Mount Argus Road in Dublin 6W are within three kilometres of each other south of the Liffey; Arbour Hill and Western Way are a kilometre apart north of it, in Stoneybatter and Broadstone; Blakestown Way is out in Blanchardstown, twelve kilometres west, and Drimnagh Castle on the Long Mile Road between. The whole city is one Sunday by bus or Luas.
Drogheda and Kildare
Leinster outside Dublin is Drogheda and Kildare. St Peter's Church of Ireland on Peter's Hill in Drogheda, forty-five minutes north by train, houses the Sourozh community of the Entrance of the Theotokos; Moorefield Road in Newbridge, forty minutes south-west, houses the Romanian parish of Pentecost and St Colman, with Monasterevin and Kilkenny further down the line, and Balbriggan and Navan to the north.
Cork and Limerick
Cork and Limerick are Munster. In Cork the Sourozh community of the Holy Trinity worships in St Peter's Church of Ireland at Carrigrohane, west of the city, and the Romanian parish of St Calinic and St Patrick on the Cork Road at Passage West, south-east of it on the harbour; in Limerick the Romanian Three Hierarchs and St Munchin worship in St Saviour's Dominican Church on Dominic Street in the city centre and the Sourozh St John the Theologian on the Ballysimon Road to the east, with Nenagh and Newcastle West served from Limerick.
Galway
Galway is Connacht. The Romanian parish of St Nicholas and St Brigid worships in St Mary's College chapel on St Mary's Road, and the Sourozh community of St Nicholas at the Ballinfoyle Castlegar Neighbourhood Centre; Sligo and Castlebar are Sourozh communities further north, Athlone and the Shannonbridge monastery an hour east on the river.
Cathedrals and parishes worth knowing
The cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of Ireland and Iceland, under Fr Călin Florea.
Leeson ParkBallsbridge
Dublin 6
D06 E542
The Greek church of Dublin and the seat of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland, whose Metropolitan Iakovos was enthroned here on 18 May 2024.
46 Arbour HillStoneybatter
Dublin 7
D07 C958
The mother church of the Diocese of Sourozh in Ireland, under the dean, Fr Michael Nasonov, with three priests and a deacon.
Mount Argus RoadDublin 6W
The Romanian parish of the north inner city, with two priests.
52B Western WayBroadstone
Dublin 7
D07 FA38
The Romanian parish of Blanchardstown, under Fr Gheorghe Raul Simion.
431 Blakestown WayDublin 15
The Romanian parish of the south city centre, under Fr Bogdan Cârdu.
7 Mount Street CrescentDublin 2
D02 HC65
Louth. The Sourozh community of Drogheda, served by Fr Michael Nasonov and Fr Gennady Sokolov.
St Peter's Church of IrelandPeter's Hill
Drogheda
Co
Kildare, W12 HN15. The Romanian parish of Kildare, under Fr Bogdan Mascan.
4 Moorefield RoadNewbridge
Co
The Sourozh community of Cork, with its feast at Pentecost.
St Peter's Church of IrelandChurch Hill
Carrigrohane
Cork
T12 TX89
Cork. The Romanian parish of Cork, under Fr Viorel Hurjui.
Cork RoadPassage West
Co
The Romanian parish of Limerick, under Fr Cristian Dumitrescu, who also serves Nenagh.
St Saviour's Dominican ChurchDominic Street
Limerick
V94 X2AA
The Sourozh parish of Limerick, under Fr Nikolai Kobets.
Unit EThe Gables
Ballysimon Road
Limerick
V94 NW82
The Romanian parish of Galway, under Fr Tudor Ghiță.
St Mary's College ChapelSt Mary's Road
Galway
H91 H7F8
The Sourozh community of Galway, under Fr Ioann Kazadojev, who also serves Sligo and Castlebar.
Ballinfoyle Castlegar Neighbourhood CentreGalway
H91 PN50
Distances that decide everything
A schematic, not a map. Journey times as given in the text.
Ireland is Dublin and two and a half hours in every direction. Dublin to Cork is two and a half hours by train, to Galway two and a half, to Limerick two, to Drogheda forty-five minutes, to Newbridge forty; Cork to Limerick an hour and a half by road. Inside Dublin, Leeson Park to Mount Street Crescent is a kilometre and a half, to Mount Argus Road three, to Arbour Hill four; Blakestown Way is twelve kilometres out.
A search radius is a Sunday: Liturgy, coffee, and home before dark. In Dublin that is the whole county and the towns on the commuter lines, Drogheda, Newbridge, Balbriggan, Navan; in Cork, the city and the harbour; in Limerick, the city and Nenagh; in Galway, the city. Between the cities is a morning train before every first meeting, and it is worth writing on your profile whether you would take it.
The Orthodox year in Ireland
Patronal feasts
The Exaltation of the Cross on 14 September at Leeson Park; the Annunciation on 25 March at Arbour Hill and on Western Way; Sts Peter and Paul on 12 July on Mount Argus Road; St George on 23 April and St Brendan on 16 May in the Dublin parishes; St Patrick on 17 March at Passage West and St Brigid on 1 February in Galway; the Holy Trinity at Pentecost in Cork; the Entrance of the Theotokos on 4 December in Drogheda. A feast day is the Sunday a parish is fullest and most open to a stranger.
Pascha
Every jurisdiction keeps the same Pascha, 12 April in 2026 and 2 May in 2027, often weeks after the Easter of the Irish calendar; the Paschal night is the night Leeson Park and Mount Argus Road are full until dawn, and the Metropolis keeps an Agape celebration in the days after. The week before is when the parishes of a city visit one another's Bridegroom services.
Two Christmases
The Romanian and Greek parishes keep the new calendar and Christmas on 25 December; the Sourozh communities keep the Julian calendar and Christmas on 7 January. A couple from two traditions keeps both, and in Dublin that is a common household.
The monastery
The monastery of the Life-Giving Spring at Shannonbridge, founded in 2019 and home to two nuns, keeps its feast on Bright Friday and a second on 9 September for St Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, whose sixth-century monastic site is a few kilometres away; it receives pilgrims all year, as places allow, and a pilgrimage there is where young people from different parishes share a car.
The Irish saints
Patrick on 17 March, Brigid on 1 February, Columba on 9 June, Kevin on 3 June, Ciarán on 9 September, Colman, Munchin, Mel of Ardagh, Erc of Slane: the Romanian parishes are named for them beside their Romanian patrons, and their feasts are kept in the parishes that carry them.
The bazaar
The Metropolis keeps a Christmas fair with carols and a bazaar on its calendar, and the Romanian diocese runs a Nepsis youth association, a parish school and the St Nectarie association; those are the days the young adults of a city are in one hall.
Dating across jurisdictions, and with converts
Four kilometres separate the three seats in Dublin; a train, Dublin from every other city on this page. The cana.love form was written with those distances in mind, and here is what to do with it.
Ask it what it asks: practice
Ask it what it asks, and the answer is what you practise: your parish, how many Sundays a month you are actually in it, what you do about fasting, whether marriage is the aim; and as an Orthodox member, choose one of twelve jurisdictions the form names, Romanian, Greek, Moscow Patriarchate, Antiochian, ROCOR, Serbian and six more, Catechumen among them, because the survey above says that is where many of the people looking are.
Write in your own language, of five
Write in your own language, if it is one of five: English, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian are on every page, which in Ireland means the English of every parish and the Russian of Mount Argus Road, not the Romanian of Leeson Park nor the Greek of Arbour Hill; and if the person you write to answers in another of the five, let the optional AI feature translate between you.
Expect to be looked at first
Expect to be looked at before you are seen: a profile and every photograph go to review before another member can see them, what the automatic check cannot settle goes to a person, and anyone who asks another member for money is removed for good, without a first warning.
Keep your wallet closed
Keep your wallet closed, because nothing here opens it: no subscription and no paid tier, who visited you and who liked you shown free, which are the two things most sites charge for; the optional AI helpers run on credits, 150 at registration and none for sale for now; and sign in with a one-time link or code to your email, so there is no password to lose.
What cana.love is and is not
cana.love is not an Orthodox-only platform.
Catholics, Church of Ireland members and people of no confession who want the same kind of marriage are members too, and whom each member sees is set by that member's own filters. In a country where the Orthodox are a recent minority, where most communities worship in borrowed Catholic and Church of Ireland buildings and where two of the three dioceses were founded in 2024, a narrower promise would be false. What the site promises is exact: jurisdiction, practice and intention are questions on the form, and everyone you meet has answered them, as you did. The company behind it is Cana SpA of Santiago, Chile; the About page says the rest.
Meeting safely
- Give money to no one you have not met in person; on cana.love the request itself is grounds for a report, and the person who made it is removed for good.
- Meet first in a public place, let a friend know where you are, and stay on the site until you, and not the other person, decide to move the conversation.
The guidelines page explains reviews, reports and appeals.
Common questions
Is cana.love available in Ireland?
Yes; any adult anywhere can join, and Ireland is no exception. Nothing is installed: the site opens in the browser of a phone or a computer, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German or Russian.
How far should I search in Ireland?
Dublin and its commuter towns as one region; Cork and the harbour as another; Limerick with Nenagh; Galway as itself. Between cities means a morning train before every meeting; say on your profile whether you would take it.
Which Orthodox parishes in Ireland serve in English?
The directories give clergy and addresses, not service languages, so ask at the door; as a rule the Romanian parishes serve in Romanian, with English growing in the parishes named for Irish saints, the Sourozh communities in Slavonic with English, and Arbour Hill in Greek with English.
Is there an Orthodox monastery in Ireland?
Yes: the women's monastery of the Life-Giving Spring at Shannonbridge in Co. Roscommon, founded in 2019 under the Romanian diocese, with two nuns, a few kilometres from Clonmacnoise; it receives pilgrims all year as places allow.
Where is the oldest Orthodox parish in Ireland?
The directories read for this page do not give founding dates, so it does not say. What is dated is recent: the Romanian diocese from its founding on 29 February 2024, the Metropolis of Ireland from 22 March 2024, and the monastery at Shannonbridge from 2019.
Where can I find every Orthodox parish in Ireland?
In the three directories: the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of Ireland and Iceland's list of parishes, eighteen in Ireland with addresses, priests and telephones; the Diocese of Sourozh's directory under Republic of Ireland; and the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Ireland's site, which names its clergy and its seat but not yet a parish list.
Are the two calendars a problem for a couple?
Only for Christmas and the fixed feasts: Lent, Pascha and Pentecost fall on the same day for every parish in Ireland. A Romanian-and-Russian couple keeps Christmas on 25 December and 7 January, and in Dublin nobody finds that strange.
Next steps
Make your profile on cana.love; read the community guidelines before you write to anyone, and the About page to see who runs the site. Then your city, its feast day or its pilgrimage to Shannonbridge, and the person.
Reviewed on September 20, 2026.
Photographs, all Wikimedia Commons: The Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation on Arbour Hill, Dublin — Cograng, CC BY-SA 4.0 · The nave of St Peter's Church of Ireland on Peter's Hill, Drogheda, where the Orthodox community worships — Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0 · St Saviour's Dominican Church on Dominic Street, Limerick, where the Romanian parish worships — William Murphy, CC BY-SA 2.0