Ireland Guide
Down and Armagh
St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral
Address: Just northwest of the Shambles Market
Website: www.armagharchdiocese.org
Opening time: Daily: April– Oct 10am–5pm; Nov– March 10am–4pm
Price: Free
The best way to get your bearings is to walk up the steps of St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral built on a hillside. The view of the town from here is impressive, and you should be able to identify most of the key sites spread out below. The cathedral's foundation stone was laid in 1840, but completion was delayed by the Famine and a subsequent lack of funding. Whilst the pope and local nobility chipped in, money was also raised by public collections and raffles – one prize of a grandfather clock has still not been claimed. On the outside, the cathedral first appears little different from many of its nineteenth-century Gothic-Revival contemporaries, but it is impressively large and airy. Inside, as befits the seat of the cardinal archbishop, every inch of wall glistens with mosaics, in colours ranging from marine- and sky-blue to terracotta pinks and oranges. Other striking pieces include the white-granite "pincer-claw" tabernacle holder, reflected in a highly polished marble floor, and a statue of the Crucifixion, which suggests (deliberately or otherwise) the old city's division into Trians.