Galway Cathedral

The Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas was completed in 1965, which makes it the last great stone cathedral built in Western Europe, and it was built deliberately against the architectural current of its decade - a Renaissance dome over a cruciform plan with Romanesque arcades and Gothic rose windows, in Connemara granite and limestone, at a time when everyone else was building in concrete. Opinions on it have always divided sharply between those who find it a genuinely impressive piece of traditional craftsmanship and those who consider it a pastiche. It stands on the site of the old Galway city jail, which was demolished for it, and the mortuary chapel includes a mosaic of the risen Christ with a portrait of John F Kennedy beside it, added after his 1963 assassination and his visit to Galway that year. The acoustics are good and organ recitals are frequent.

History

A parish chapel was built around 1750 on Middle Street and replaced in 1821 by a Gothic limestone church of St Patrick, which became the pro-cathedral when the Diocese of Galway was created in 1831. The present cathedral was begun in 1958 on the site of the old Galway Gaol and completed in 1965, called the last great stone cathedral to be built in Europe (Wikipedia, Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St Nicholas, Galway).

What to look for

• The dome - Renaissance in form, over a cruciform limestone plan.
• The Kennedy mosaic - in the mortuary chapel, added after 1963.
• The stonework - Connemara granite and limestone, cut traditionally.
• The date - 1965, the last great stone cathedral built in Western Europe.

When to go

Any season; indoors throughout. It is a working cathedral, so services close parts of it. Organ recitals are held regularly and are worth timing for.

Good to know

A twentieth-century building in historical styles - people expecting a medieval cathedral are disappointed, and opinions on the design are genuinely divided. Free but donations are pressed. Services limit access at times.

Nearby

The Salmon Weir Bridge and the university are alongside; the Latin Quarter is south.

Key facts