Ireland’s largest Cathedral 

This is the site of what is reputedly the earliest Christian site in Ireland. There has been a church here since the 5th century and in 1191 it was raised to the status of a Cathedral. The building expanded over years and became the largest Cathedral in Ireland. Some of its interesting facts include the hole on the door on the south side, This is where James – Earl of Ormond, and Gerald – Earl of Kildare, shook hands in 1491 after years of distrust and treachery and is where the term ‘chancing your arm’ comes from. Oliver Cromwell stabled his horses here in 1650, The writer and satirist Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels), was Dean of Christchurch from 1713 to 1745 and Handel’s Messiah was first performed here in 1742. Much of the gothic building you see today dates from a major refurbishment carried out by Sir Benjamin Guinness in 1864. Unusually, Dublin has two cathedrals belonging to the Church of Ireland, which act effectively as co-Cathedrals.