The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Patrick is the largest church in Ireland and the National Cathedral for the Church of Ireland. It is situated in a fork of the River Poddle (now underground), and is thought to be next to a well used for baptisms in the 5th Century by St. Patrick. During the 1901 construction of the garden next to the cathedral, six Celtic grave slabs dating to the 10th Century were found. One of the slabs was covering the remains of an ancient well, and it's thought that this may have been the very well used by the Saint.

The church was founded in 1191, but the building from which the present one evolved was built in the early-mid 13th Century. Over the centuries there have been additions and collapses and fires and even floods (the water table is only 7 feet below the floor of the cathedral, making a crypt out of the question). In the 17th Century, Oliver Cromwell stabled horses in the cathedral nave. But all the periods of deterioration have been followed by restorations, with the most recent big one coming courtesy of the Guinness family – mainly Benjamin Lee Guinness, whose badly-needed 1860-65 restoration was done under the condition that it not be interfered with. Many things were done during this restoration, including the addition of a ceiling (separate from the underside of the roof) and the removal of wooden partitions which separated parts of the church from each other. Eventual reviews of the work were not unanimous, but the cathedral board must not have been too upset – the cathedral was reopened in 1865 with an elaborate ceremony, and a bronze statue of Sir Benjamin was put up outside the south side of the cathedral in 1875.

The south side of the cathedral is also where we found the entrance. We paid the admission fee (regular maintenance is now done with the help of these fees) and walked in. To our left we couldn't help but notice a tall, dark-colored monument against the wall (the Boyle monument – more on this later), and, in front of us, a small gift shop (also to help with the maintenance expenses, no doubt).

To the right was the bulk of the cathedral. We set off to explore.



Near the front of the church, looking to our left up the north transept, we noticed several flags hanging from the wall. Apparently the north transept was set aside in the 19th Century to commemorate Irishmen who died in the service of the British army, and the flags are regimental flags representing some of the soldiers. Some of the flags are more than 100 years old.

There were also flags hanging from the walls of the choir, in front of us. These flags are family heralds representing membership in the Most Illustrious Order of the Knights of Saint Patrick. This was an order of chivalry founded in 1783 under King George III. In 1869, ceremonies related to the order were moved to Dublin Castle, and the flags above the choir stalls in St. Patrick's represent the order's membership at that time. The order pretty much faded away after Ireland gained independence from Britain, though technically Queen Elizabeth II is still a member.

Behind the high altar we could see into a large chapel that was not open for visitors. There were two men in the chapel who seemed to be brainstorming something. We found out afterward that this was the Lady Chapel – a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary (a Lady Chapel is apparently a common practice among large Northern European cathedrals). For a while the St. Patrick's Lady Chapel was known as the "French Chapel", as it was long used by French Huguenots who had fled France for Dublin to escape persecution. As it turns out, the Lady Chapel was closed for a major renovation shortly after our visit – the two men may have been discussing the plans for the project. The Lady Chapel is now open to visitors, and appears to be gorgeous, based on pictures posted on the Internet.

As with most European cathedrals, St. Patrick's is filled with burial places and monuments to the departed. One such monument, shown above, is the Boyle Monument, put up in 1632 by Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. It was originally set up against the east wall of the choir, but some were offended by its conspicuousness (including Lord Deputy Wentworth and Archbishop William Laud), and it was taken down in 1634, to be rebuilt against the south wall of the chancel. This was not taken well by the Earl, who already despised Wentworth for other reasons (e.g. property confiscation). But he must have felt somewhat vindicated when Wentworth was later tried, convicted and beheaded for treason following the Irish Rebellion of 1641. In 1863, during the Guinness renovation, the monument was moved again, this time to the west end of the cathedral, where it remains to the present day. As an aside, one of the many figures depicted on the monument (the one in the middle, on the lower level) is a rendering of the Earl's youngest son Robert (the Earl and his wife, Lady Catherine, had 14 children), who grew up to publish a fundamental law dealing with the pressure and volume of gases (now known as Boyle's Law) in 1662. This law is so significant that the younger Boyle is sometimes referred to as the Father of Modern Chemistry.

Not far from the Boyle Monument is the stylistically similar memorial to Thomas Jones, who served, among other positions, as Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He died in 1619.

Not all of the memorials in the cathedral involve statuary. For example, the memorial to Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847-1927), consists of a set of stained-glass windows. Edward was the third son of Sir Benjamin Guinness (the Guinness behind the 1860-65 restoration), and had an active and rewarding career of his own. He was the chief executive of Guinness from 1868 until 1889, during which the output of the brewery increased enormously. He took over sole ownership of the company in 1876 by buying out his brother, and when he floated two-thirds of the company in 1886, he became the richest man in Ireland. He was a generous philanthropist, contributing heavily to slum clearance (including one just to the north of St. Patrick's, which he transformed into the park seen there today) and housing projects, in addition to medical research and the British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-09 (Mount Iveagh in Antarctica is named in his honor). He acted as High Sheriff of County Dublin in 1885 and attained a seat in the British House of Lords in 1891. He participated in the 1917-18 Irish Convention that tried (unsuccessfully) to find a moderate solution to the demands of Irish nationalists, and was a personal friend of W.T. Cosgrave, who became the first leader of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Another non-statue is a cross which was put up in memory of Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810-1886), a barrister, antiquarian (he studied megaliths and other archeological sites) and keeper of public records. He married into the banking branch of the Guinness family, but is probably best remembered as a poet, in which capacity he is considered an important forerunner of such poets as William Butler Yeats.

But getting back to statues, the northern gallery of the cathedral is filled with them. The most elaborate one is probably the memorial to George Nugent Temple Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (1753-1813). George was a political creature, attaining a seat in the House of Commons at an early age and being briefly appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1782. While Lord Lieutenant, he supported increased legislative independence for Ireland, and it was he who created the Order of Saint Patrick. He returned to British politics at the end of 1783 but returned to the Lord Lieutenant office in 1787, which he held for two years. But this second tour of duty was much less successful than the first, as he made some missteps which made him thoroughly unpopular. When he left office in 1789, he pretty much stayed out of politics for the rest of his life. He didn't know any Guinnesses.


The most well-known person buried in the church is probably Jonathan Swift, who served as the cathedral's Dean from 1713 until his death in 1745. Swift was a prolific writer of prose, poetry, political tracts and miscellaneous correspondence. Among his output were several works of satire, the most famous of which was (and is) Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726.

Gulliver's Travels, written under the pseudonym "Lemuel Gulliver" (many of his works were published under pen names), is about a young man who travels (mostly accidentally) to many amazing places. Among these places are Lilliput (where the people are under six inches tall), Brobdingnag (where the people are above 70 feet tall), Laputa (a flying island), Glubbdubdrib (where Gulliver talks to ghosts of historical figures), and the Country of the Houyhnhnms (intelligent, talking horses, who rule stupid, deformed humans called Yahoos). Oh, and Japan. Swift's satirical works tend to be difficult for modern-day readers to understand as satire, as they often relate to now-obscure incidents specific to the time in which they were written. But Gulliver's Travels can be taken at face value as an imaginative fantasy, and people continue to read it (and make movies of it) into the 21st Century.

Jonathan Swift is not buried alone in St. Patrick's Cathedral. He apparently never married, but through much of his life he had a strong connection with a woman named Esther Johnson. Swift first met Esther when he was a young man working in England as a secretary. Esther was then eight years old, the daughter of a woman who was acting as a companion to Swift's employer's sister. Swift acted as Esther's tutor and mentor, and conferred upon her the nickname "Stella". Years later, when Swift was working in Ireland and Esther had reached the age of 20, Swift took a trip to England and brought back Esther and Rebecca Dingley, another friend he had made while working for his former employer. It's not clear exactly what the relationship was between Swift and Esther. Some thought they'd been secretly married, but others thought the idea preposterous. Esther lived with Rebecca throughout her years in Ireland, and Swift formed and broke attachments with other women. But throughout this time, Swift was a frequent visitor (always with Rebecca present) and correspondent to Stella, and there is one incident in which Swift tried to discourage a friend who was interested in marrying Esther (it's not clear whether the friend went through with a proposal, but he ended up marrying someone else two years later). Esther eventually died at the age of 47, and Swift was inconsolable at this time. When Swift himself died 17 years later, he was buried next to her in St. Patrick's Cathedral, at his request.


We exited St. Patrick's Cathedral and headed in an eastward direction. Our next destination for the day was to be the archaeology facility of the National Museum of Ireland.