Overview
St Patrick’s is the largest church in Ireland and the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland, and for most visitors the draw is one man: Jonathan Swift, who was Dean here from 1713 until his death in 1745 and lies buried in the south aisle. If you have an hour, spend it on the Swift memorials and the Door of Reconciliation (the story behind ‘to chance your arm’, below) rather than trying to read all 200-odd monuments on the walls. The cathedral sits a short walk from Christ Church Cathedral and Trinity College, so it fits easily into a city-centre day.
One thing to know before you go: unlike many Irish churches, this is a paid visitor attraction, and a busy one – roughly half a million people a year come through. Mornings on a weekday are the quiet window.
A sacred site through the centuries
The site was marked long before the stone cathedral, by a holy well said to have been used by Saint Patrick in the 5th century. Six 10th-century grave slabs, now displayed inside, confirm an early ecclesiastical presence on this low ground near the River Poddle.
The medieval building took shape after 1191, when John Comyn, Dublin’s first Anglo-Norman archbishop, founded a collegiate church here. A royal grant from Henry III in 1225 helped pay the masons, and the cruciform English-Gothic cathedral was consecrated in 1254. It survived a major fire in 1362 that gutted the interior but spared the heavy stonework.
After the Reformation the cathedral had a rougher time of it – demoted to a parish church, pressed into use as a courthouse, and briefly used as a stable for Oliver Cromwell’s horses. By the 19th century weathering and neglect had it close to collapse, until Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, the brewing heir, paid for a full restoration in the 1860s that saved the building and added its slender central spire. His statue stands outside the west door.
Architecture and art
The cathedral is English Gothic through and through: pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses and big traceried windows. Light comes through an extensive collection of stained glass, from medieval fragments to 19th-century panels of biblical scenes and Irish figures.
More than 200 monuments, plaques and effigies line the walls, among them memorials to Sir William Petty, the poet Thomas Moore, and Dubliners killed in the 20th-century wars. The Lady Chapel behind the high altar, added around 1270, is the finest piece of early medieval stonework in the building.
Jonathan Swift, and the Door of Reconciliation
Swift asked to be buried in the north aisle and was interred in the south aisle instead, alongside his companion Esther Johnson – ‘Stella’. His own savage Latin epitaph, which he wrote himself, is fixed to the wall above. The adjoining graves are the quiet focal point of the building for anyone who came for the writer.
The other story worth knowing is the Door of Reconciliation. In 1492 two feuding families, the Butlers and the FitzGeralds, were at each other’s throats; to make peace, the Earl of Kildare cut a hole in the chapter-house door and thrust his arm through to shake hands, risking it being hacked off. The door survives, hole and all, and that gamble is where the phrase ‘to chance your arm’ comes from.
Behind the high altar, the Lady Chapel tells a different story again. In 1665 it was granted to French Huguenot refugees and renamed L’Église Française de St Patrick, becoming the heart of Dublin’s Huguenot community. The bronze Huguenot Bell, cast in 1685, still hangs there.
Discovery Space and visitor experience
The Discovery Space adds interactive iPad stations covering the cathedral’s timeline, architecture and music without cluttering the historic fabric. A self-guided audio guide runs on your own smartphone in seven languages – English, Irish, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Mandarin.
Free guided tours run Monday to Saturday at 10.30am and 2.30pm (not Sundays); private guided tours for groups of ten or more cost €18 per person. During school term the Cathedral Choir – founded in 1432, and singing about twelve services a week – performs daily, a tradition running close to six centuries.
Practical information
Opening hours and admission
- Monday–Friday: 09:30–17:00 (last admission 17:00)
- Saturday: 09:00–18:00
- Sunday: 09:00–10:30, 13:00–14:30, 16:30–18:00 (worship times; limited sightseeing)
- Adult: €11.50 | Student/Senior (60+): €10.00 | Child (6–12): €5.50 | Infant (under 5): Free | Family (2 adults + up to 3 children): €31.00
Book online or at the door. Advance booking helps in summer and at weekends.
Getting there
- Bus: routes 49, 49A, 54A, 77A and 151 stop within a short walk.
- Luas: the Green Line to St Stephen’s Green leaves a ten-minute walk to the cathedral.
- Walking: a 15-minute stroll from Trinity College passes Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library.
- Bike: Dublin Bikes docks at Francis Street and Christ Church Place are close by.
- Parking: no dedicated parking; the nearest public options are Q-Park Christchurch and Smithfield Car Park.
Visitor tips
- The self-guided audio content is included with admission and covers the same ground as the Discovery Space iPads.
- The rear garden and open-air monuments give families a slower, cheaper-to-mind space between the indoor stops.
- A ramp and lift serve the main entrance, and wheelchair-friendly routes are signposted.
- Services run through the week; visitors are welcome but should keep quiet and dress modestly during worship.
Exploring further
Christ Church Cathedral is a five-minute walk east (a separate ticket), with the Chester Beatty Library and Dublin Castle just beyond, and Marsh’s Library – Ireland’s oldest public library – right next door. For green space, St Stephen’s Green and the Iveagh Gardens are an easy walk. Allow at least 90 minutes here, longer if you catch the choir at evensong.