St. Patrick's Cathedral

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland

This trip to Morocco and the subsequent trip to Ireland have checked off tons of boxes on my life's to do list. Many of which were not on the list until I got to Morocco, like going to the Hammam, visiting the Hassan II mosque,and  riding the Kanguroo. The spring break trip to Ireland, however, let me check off things that have been on my list for a very long time. Visit St. Patrick's Cathedral: Check. St. Patrick's was not what I expected, but it was still very cool and very interesting. 

The building(completed in 1192) was not originally a cathedral, but was elevated to cathedral status in 1224. This cathedral is one of two Church of Ireland(very similar to the church of England, all beliefs are the same as Catholicism except that the Pope does not have universal power) cathedrals on the island. St. Patrick's was originally a Catholic cathedral, but after the English Reformation it became part of the Church of England around 1535, even though a majority of its constituents remained Catholic. It is located directly next to the spot where the "well of St. Patrick" was supposed to have been. St. Patrick used this well to convert and baptize the native Irish people. 

There are many famous and important people of Irish history buried in St. Patrick's. One of the most important being Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels. Swift was dean of the cathedral from 1713-1745 and many of his writings were delivered in the church. 

A fantastic church choir was practicing in the church when Tiffany and I arrived. It made the whole experience a little surreal. Surrounded by beautiful stained glass, historic artifacts, and angelic music is exactly my idea of a good time in a cathedral. 

All the keys to the cathedral for the past 100 years or so.

One really interesting artifact was a book encased in glass containing the names of the 50,000 Irish men who died in World War I. The information panel said that "from time to time, the Cathedral staff turn the pages of the volume so that all names may be seen." 

The Doyles: Richard, Robert, Stephan, Thomas, Vincent and William (a good 20 of these are Thomas and William)

Legend has it, that a Romeo and Juliet-esque family feud was going on in Dublin in 1492. Both parties were getting quite sick of the warfare however. Seeking respite, Gerald the King of Kildare and his men found shelter in the cathedral. He was of course pursued by his rival, James of Ormond, but he promptly shut the door in his face. After an amount of time, trying to wait it out, and realizing that James was not going anywhere, Gerald cut a whole in the door and stuck his arm through in order to shake on a truce. This is supposedly the origin of phrase "chancing your arm" as in taking a risk.