Armagh’s eclectic Cathedral

This is reputedly the site of an ancient ringfort where St Patrick founded a church in 445AD. Patrick called it ‘My Sweet Hill’ and said that it should have pre-eminence over all other churches in Ireland making Armagh its ecclesiastical capital. Armagh now has 2 Cathedrals, one Catholic and one Protestant that face each other across the town. The 2 Archbishops are each entitled to call themselves ‘Primate of all Ireland’. The building of the Catholic Cathedral started in 1838 but was not completed until 1873. This was due to the Great Famine. The building is a curious mix of architectural styles as it changes halfway up the walls with the bottom section in the English Perpendicular Gothic style and the top half in the French Decorated Gothic style. To complicate things further, the interior is in a Byzantine style with every piece of wall and ceiling covered in brilliantly colored mosaics. A unique feature of the Cathedral is the Cardinal’s Hats which hang in the sanctuary. On the death of a Cardinal, his hat would be left to decay here – symbolizing the end of all earthly glory.