St John's Cathedral

On your right stands Saint John's Cathedral, an imposing structure built of rough grey limestone, dominated by a soaring, sharply pointed spire and distinguished by a solitary white statue set just above its main entrance. It has quite a presence, does it not? English architect Philip Charles Hardwick designed this Roman Catholic cathedral back in eighteen fifty-six. Hardwick was a fan of the Gothic Revivalist style, an architectural movement bringing back the towering, pointed arches of medieval Europe. But his take here is famously described as severe. Apart from that lone statue on the front facade, there is practically no external decoration on the main body of the church.

They definitely saved the drama for the tower. The spire was added later, starting in eighteen seventy-nine, by architect Thomas Byrne. He ran into serious trouble when a massive storm in September of eighteen eighty-two heavily damaged the construction, delaying the entire project. When finally finished, locals proudly claimed it was the tallest spire in Ireland, reaching ninety-four meters, or three hundred and eight feet. Unfortunately, modern measuring tools ruined the fun. It turns out it is actually only eighty-one meters, making it shorter than Saint Colman's Cathedral in Cobh.

If you check your phone, you can see the inside of the nave, the grand central hall where the congregation gathers, showing original wooden pews and floor tiles from eighteen ninety-four that still survive today. It stands as a quietly powerful monument to nineteenth-century Limerick. Take all the time you need to admire the architecture, and whenever you are ready, we can make our way to the next stop.