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CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL DUBLIN (The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity)
So, where to begin our story if not at the beginning? To do that, we need to go back nearly a thousand years, to when Dublin was a young but bustling Viking trading port that brought goods through Ireland from all over the medieval world. The vikings, while rightly famous for their seemingly endless fierceness and military skill were also keen businessmen who should be remembered as much for their highly developed economy as they are for their mighty conquests.
If you had been on one of the Viking longboats which arrived at the mouth of the Liffey in 8**, you would have been meet at this site by a wide opening in the waters of the river. This opening was known as ‘the Black Pool’, or ‘Dubh Linn’, and it is from this title that the modern city would take its name. This simple geographical feature would allow the Viking longboats to harbour near the opening of the river, and this would be the nexus for the growth of the medieval city. Soon Dubh Linn would develop into a trading port, and would indeed become the most prosperous Viking port outside of Scandinavia. Gold, spices, furs, and other precious materials were moved in immense numbers from the Near-East and the Mediterranian Basin northward towards Scandinavia, and Dubh Linn was a crucial node of this trading network. However, the most prodigious resource moved through the young settlement was of a much darker nature. At the height of the Viking period, Dubh Linn was the world’s most prosperous slave-trading port, and huge amounts of human cargo were offloaded and redirected through the waterways of the city. Even today, if one was to examine the genome of modern Scandinavians, they would see upwards of 15% Irish heritage, a fact which speaks to the dark origin of Dubh Linn.
The nature of the settlement would fundamentally change during the early 11th century, when the Viking rulers of the settlement would be converted to Christianity.
So it was here, around the year 1030, that the Viking king of this burgeoning city, Sitric Silkenbeard, found himself newly converted to Christianity. Following his pilgrimage to the heart of Christianity, Rome, Sitric returned with precious relics and a desire to firmly proclaim his new faith ordered the construction of the first church on this site. This early church would have been made of the permeable material of wood and as such has obviously not survived the millennium since its creation. So if we are not standing in the Church of Sitric Silkenbeard, whose church are we standing in? To answer that question, we’ll have to step forward 100 years to the year 1170, and the first Norman invasions of Ireland.
The King of Leinster, a man by the name of Dermot Macmurrough, had managed to enrage a large percentage of his fellow irish kings, and following defeat in battle had found himself dethroned and exiled from the Island. Doing what any good ruler would do, and indeed doing what many Irish rulers had done before, MacMura sought out foreign powers to form a treaty and re-secure his throne. Irish kings had for centuries formed treaties with kingdoms big and small throughout the British Isles, but what made the actions of MacMura so different and so momentous was the strength of the power that the King of Leinster had invited into Ireland. Strongbow, Norman vassel to Henry II, King of England, was not like anything the Irish had faced before. The Normans were a different breed to the powers of of the British Isles at that time, hence why the first anglo-Norman ruler, William the Conqueror had been able to seize the throne of England in a single battle at Hastings. Likewise, the Normans proved unstoppable within Ireland. Fierce warriors, brilliant engineers and cunning strategists, the Normans under Strongbow easily defeated the combined armies of several Irish Kings. Of course, in return for his invaluable aid in returning Dermot to the throne of Leinster, Strongbow demanded two major concessions. Firstly, Strongbow would claim the hand of Dermot’s daughter, Aoife, in Marriage. Secondly, and most importantly, upon Dermot’s death, Strongbow would inherit the Kingdom of Leinster. In what can only be described as poetic irony, the old King of Leinster, having just been returned to his throne, died not more than a year later. Strongbow, whom faith and good fortune had swept to Irish shores now found himself the King of Leinster and the potential ruler of far more than that. Obviously Strongbow has been remembered in Irish history as one of the greatest dealmakers to ever Grace the island, having swooped in and claimed for himself one of the greatest Holdings in the land. Unsurprisingly, the location of Strongbow’s tomb here within Christchurch developed as a site for the making of treaties and deals, as you can see from the wear and tear evident on strongbows helm, were centuries of Dublin businessman tested there coins against the hard stone. Tragically this church that Strongbow had built suffered a calamitous collapse in the year 1562, bringing down the roof of the Nave and large parts of the south wall, and destroying Strongbow's tomb along with it. As you can imagine this caused tremendous problems for the economic life of Dublin, as treaties, agreements and bargains were no longer binding as they had been before. the Dean of Christ Church a man who could think on his feet quickly ordered men up to st. Peter's churchyard in Drogheda to claim the most beautiful tomb they could find, to return it here to the cathedral at Christ Church, and to name that Tomb Strongbow.
Dublin, that strange city between the edge of the old world and the heart of an empire, would be greatly shaped by its history. Whilst some City stand eternal and unchanging, Dublin has been in a near constant state of flux. The comings and goings of empire, the depths of blight and the highs of booms have swept through the city. Even today you can find the ancient and the modern effortlessly combined within the city, and nowhere is that more true than in Christchurch, where the Gaelic, Viking, Norman and British histories of Dublin converge. Indeed, the location chosen by Sitric Silkenbeard for the first Cathedral was designed to bring together the Gaelic and Viking portions of the town, its construction being equidistant from both Gaelic Duiblinn with the Viking built Ath Cliath.
If you had been on one of the Viking longboats which arrived at the mouth of the Liffey in 8**, you would have been meet at this site by a wide opening in the waters of the river. This opening was known as ‘the Black Pool’, or ‘Dubh Linn’, and it is from this title that the modern city would take its name. This simple geographical feature would allow the Viking longboats to harbour near the opening of the river, and this would be the nexus for the growth of the medieval city. Soon Dubh Linn would develop into a trading port, and would indeed become the most prosperous Viking port outside of Scandinavia. Gold, spices, furs, and other precious materials were moved in immense numbers from the Near-East and the Mediterranian Basin northward towards Scandinavia, and Dubh Linn was a crucial node of this trading network. However, the most prodigious resource moved through the young settlement was of a much darker nature. At the height of the Viking period, Dubh Linn was the world’s most prosperous slave-trading port, and huge amounts of human cargo were offloaded and redirected through the waterways of the city. Even today, if one was to examine the genome of modern Scandinavians, they would see upwards of 15% Irish heritage, a fact which speaks to the dark origin of Dubh Linn.
The nature of the settlement would fundamentally change during the early 11th century, when the Viking rulers of the settlement would be converted to Christianity.
So it was here, around the year 1030, that the Viking king of this burgeoning city, Sitric Silkenbeard, found himself newly converted to Christianity. Following his pilgrimage to the heart of Christianity, Rome, Sitric returned with precious relics and a desire to firmly proclaim his new faith ordered the construction of the first church on this site. This early church would have been made of the permeable material of wood and as such has obviously not survived the millennium since its creation. So if we are not standing in the Church of Sitric Silkenbeard, whose church are we standing in? To answer that question, we’ll have to step forward 100 years to the year 1170, and the first Norman invasions of Ireland.
The King of Leinster, a man by the name of Dermot Macmurrough, had managed to enrage a large percentage of his fellow irish kings, and following defeat in battle had found himself dethroned and exiled from the Island. Doing what any good ruler would do, and indeed doing what many Irish rulers had done before, MacMura sought out foreign powers to form a treaty and re-secure his throne. Irish kings had for centuries formed treaties with kingdoms big and small throughout the British Isles, but what made the actions of MacMura so different and so momentous was the strength of the power that the King of Leinster had invited into Ireland. Strongbow, Norman vassel to Henry II, King of England, was not like anything the Irish had faced before. The Normans were a different breed to the powers of of the British Isles at that time, hence why the first anglo-Norman ruler, William the Conqueror had been able to seize the throne of England in a single battle at Hastings. Likewise, the Normans proved unstoppable within Ireland. Fierce warriors, brilliant engineers and cunning strategists, the Normans under Strongbow easily defeated the combined armies of several Irish Kings. Of course, in return for his invaluable aid in returning Dermot to the throne of Leinster, Strongbow demanded two major concessions. Firstly, Strongbow would claim the hand of Dermot’s daughter, Aoife, in Marriage. Secondly, and most importantly, upon Dermot’s death, Strongbow would inherit the Kingdom of Leinster. In what can only be described as poetic irony, the old King of Leinster, having just been returned to his throne, died not more than a year later. Strongbow, whom faith and good fortune had swept to Irish shores now found himself the King of Leinster and the potential ruler of far more than that. Obviously Strongbow has been remembered in Irish history as one of the greatest dealmakers to ever Grace the island, having swooped in and claimed for himself one of the greatest Holdings in the land. Unsurprisingly, the location of Strongbow’s tomb here within Christchurch developed as a site for the making of treaties and deals, as you can see from the wear and tear evident on strongbows helm, were centuries of Dublin businessman tested there coins against the hard stone. Tragically this church that Strongbow had built suffered a calamitous collapse in the year 1562, bringing down the roof of the Nave and large parts of the south wall, and destroying Strongbow's tomb along with it. As you can imagine this caused tremendous problems for the economic life of Dublin, as treaties, agreements and bargains were no longer binding as they had been before. the Dean of Christ Church a man who could think on his feet quickly ordered men up to st. Peter's churchyard in Drogheda to claim the most beautiful tomb they could find, to return it here to the cathedral at Christ Church, and to name that Tomb Strongbow.
Dublin, that strange city between the edge of the old world and the heart of an empire, would be greatly shaped by its history. Whilst some City stand eternal and unchanging, Dublin has been in a near constant state of flux. The comings and goings of empire, the depths of blight and the highs of booms have swept through the city. Even today you can find the ancient and the modern effortlessly combined within the city, and nowhere is that more true than in Christchurch, where the Gaelic, Viking, Norman and British histories of Dublin converge. Indeed, the location chosen by Sitric Silkenbeard for the first Cathedral was designed to bring together the Gaelic and Viking portions of the town, its construction being equidistant from both Gaelic Duiblinn with the Viking built Ath Cliath.