The largest church in Ireland, built where Patrick is said to have baptised converts, with Jonathan Swift buried in the floor and his epitaph on the wall.
Why Dublin has two cathedrals
Both St Patrick’s and Christ Church are Church of Ireland cathedrals, they are four hundred metres apart, and for centuries they argued about which outranked the other. The settlement of 1300 made Christ Church the diocesan cathedral and St Patrick’s the national one, an arrangement of such elegant fudge that it has survived.
Neither is Catholic, in a country that is overwhelmingly Catholic — both were transferred to the established church at the Reformation and never given back. The Catholic pro-cathedral is a much plainer building on Marlborough Street.
The building
Founded in 1191, and at 91 metres it is the longest church in Ireland. The tower holds the largest ringing peal in the country. Most of what you see is the fabric of the thirteenth century heavily restored in the 1860s by the Guinness family, who paid for the lot — Benjamin Lee Guinness spent a fortune on it and stipulated that no records be kept of what was original and what was his, which has irritated architectural historians ever since.
Tradition puts a well here where St Patrick baptised converts in the fifth century. A stone slab covering a well was found on the site in 1901 and is inside.
Swift
Jonathan Swift was Dean here from 1713 to 1745, which he regarded as an exile from London and a professional disappointment. He wrote Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal while in the job, and he left his estate to found a hospital for the mentally ill, which still exists.
He is buried in the nave beside Esther Johnson, the “Stella” of his writing. His self-written Latin epitaph is on the wall — Yeats translated it as saying that savage indignation can no longer lacerate his heart, and called it the greatest epitaph in history.
The pulpit, his death mask and a cast of his skull are all in the north transept.
Other things inside
The Boyle Monument, a four-storey painted family tomb erected by the Earl of Cork in 1632, which annoyed the Lord Deputy so much he had it moved.
The door with a hole in it, from 1492, cut through by the Earl of Kildare so he could shake hands with the Earl of Ormond, who was barricaded in the chapter house after a family feud. This is where “chancing your arm” comes from.
Colours and memorials of Irish regiments along the walls, which is a more complicated presence in a Dublin church than it first appears.
Practical
There is an admission charge for sightseeing and free entry for services. Sunday morning and evensong are worship, not tours, and visitors are welcome on that basis.
St Patrick’s Park alongside is a pleasant square of lawn and is where the neighbourhood eats lunch.
More History
Kilmainham Gaol
The prison where the leaders of the 1916 Rising were executed, and where a great deal of modern Ireland was decided. Guided tour only, and it books out weeks ahead.
Christ Church Cathedral
Founded by a Viking king around 1030, with the largest crypt in Ireland or Britain underneath it — and, in a glass case down there, a mummified cat and rat.
Glasnevin Cemetery
A million and a half people buried in 124 acres, including most of the names in modern Irish history, and a guided tour that is one of the best things in the city.