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a tale of two cathedrals

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A Tale of Two Cathedrals

Dublin 8
Dublin
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Dublin is unusual in having two cathedrals within half a mile of each other, both belonging to the Anglican Church of Ireland.
Christ Church Cathedral was founded in 1038 by Sitric Silkenbeard, the Norse King of Dublin, and the present building dates from 1169 when it was rebuilt by 'Strongbow', Earl of Pembroke. It was restored and 'dressed up' in Gothic style in 1871. The cathedral which in 1487 was the scene of the coronation of the pretender Lambert Simnel, contains Strongbow's tomb and the heart of St Laurence O'Toole (in a metal casket). In the ancient crypt is preserved a set of stocks made in 1670, a sort of frame in which malefactors were exposed to public ridicule.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, just down the street, was built outside the city walls (and thus in a different jurisdiction from Christ church) in 1191 on the site of an earlier church dating from 450 AD.
Its most famous incumbent was Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, who was the Dean from 1713 to 1745.
Description
Description
Over his tomb is displayed the epitaph which he wrote for himself: 'Here he lies where savage indignation can no longer lacerate his heart'.
Curiously enough, Dublin has no Roman Catholic Cathedral, and is served instead by St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Marlborough Street. The oldest Catholic churches in Dublin date from the abolition of the penal laws.
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