We visited the cathedral in May 2019; sorry for the delayed review. St. Patrick's is inextricably tied to the history and politics of Ireland. It served as both Catholic and Protestant cathedrals as control of the country shifted from Catholic to Anglican and back. King James visited here and King William of Orange held the church as his base. Today it is the cathedral of the Church of Ireland and states it serves both Catholics and Protestants. Access cost 7 Euros in 2019 and you could easily spend two hours or more self-guiding yourself around the cathedral; we were lucky enough to attach ourselves to a guided tour. While seeming smaller than Christ Church and its surrounding buildings which were served by the Augustinians, St. Patrick's has almost a parish church feel to it. It is beautiful inside, with the glass, tiles, choir, and Lady Chapel well restored and worth seeing. Some highlights in its history include the feud between the Butlers and Fitzgeralds for control of Dublin which ended when the leaders of the clans shook hands through a hole in the Door of Reconciliation in 1492, resulting in the Irish term "chance the hand". Jonathan Swift (who wrote Gulliver's Travels) served as dean for over 30 years. The Messiah was first preformed here in 1742, and the Knights of the Order of St. Patricks were registered and their memberships ceremonies held here. On one side of church is St. Patrick's Park which is nice for a stroll and to sit on a bench or the grass, and on the other side of the church is the red-bricked cathedral grammar school. Apparently St. Patrick would baptize people with water from a well in the park, and there is indeed a capped well in the park near the entrance to the cathedral. Another must-see while visiting Dublin.

We happened onto St. Patrick’s Cathedral, as we were staying just down the road. We arrived when it opened (0900 on Saturday), which was a good call (large tour groups started showing up when we were almost done). The price of admission was €8/person, which was very reasonable for what we saw. Recommend you do like we did and go watch the film (midway back on the right) before you start the tour. It provided a great overview of the history of the church and some of the famous people associated with the church. Afterwards, we did the self-guided tour, which was actually setup really well (normally they do guided tours, but I don’t think the guide volunteers work on Saturdays). The self guided map (which came in multiple languages) did a nice job taking you from spot to spot pointing out important artifacts. Besides the map items, there was a ton of other things to look at (plaques in dedication, architecture and a gift shop). Overall, I’m glad we stumbled onto this cathedral. It contained a ton of history and was really interesting. We highly recommend you try it.

Beautiful church with a great history behind it. I took a self guided tour of the Cathedral. They have a little paper that outlines a little path for you to take and items of interest. One interesting thing. Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver's travel, was a dean here and was interred here. Beautiful architecture and equally magnificent stained glass all around. And yes, they have a gift shop. You must realize they are not state supported and thus all you entrance fee and anything the gift shop makes goes to supporting this magnificent piece of history. If I recall our walking tour guide he said that it was originally a Catholic church before becoming an Anglican Church. Visit also Christ Church Cathedral, which is often compared to St. Patrick. Both are equally impressive. But St. Patty's is more well known. Also one more thing. There are more artifacts at St. Patrick's than at Christ Church. Don't forget to see the Boyle family Monument. The famous member is Sir Robert Boyle who discovered Boyle's law of gases. Remember your chemistry?😄