….there certainly is no scarcity of either structure in Ireland

Ireland offers a myriad of church buildings and statues honouring city founders and heroes. One evening and then again the next day, while waiting for a bus I walked up and down the boulevard on O’Connell Street and took photos of the statues that one sees when coming into the city centre.

The churches in Ireland are old and predominately Catholic but one of the most famous churches in downtown Dublin is Anglican; St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Built in honour of Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick Cathedral stands adjacent to the famous well where tradition has it Saint Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin.

The parish church of Saint Patrick on this site was granted collegiate status in 1191, and raised to cathedral status in 1224. The present building dates from 1220. The Cathedral is today the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland (a church of the Anglican communion) and also serves as a popular tourist attraction in Ireland. 

I don’t have any photos of the interior. This was the second church today that charged to walk through the doors. The cost to see both churches would have been 18 Euro for each of us or about $25.00.  I understand needing the money for renovations but we found the prices were prohibitive, especially when there were three of us. I would have been happy to make a donation but that wasn’t an option. If you check out the website above you can see some interior shots and get some more history about this magnificent building.

The first church we stopped at was the Christ Church Cathedral. It is the oldest medieval church in Dublin and was founded in 1028 by the Norse King, Sitriuc Silkenbeard and associated with many important figures in Irish History, including the infamous Strongbow (Richard de Clare) and Dublin’s own Patron Saint, Laurence O’Toole.

Here are a few more churches that we came across in our travels throughout Dublin and Westport.