Tour description: St Patrick's Cathedral & Marsh's Library

St Patrick’s Cathedral

A guided tour of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin explores Ireland’s largest cathedral, founded near the site traditionally associated with Saint Patrick’s baptism of converts.

The present building was constructed in the 13th-century in the Anglo-Gothic style, but was extensively restored during a major 19th Century project funded by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, then head of the famous Dublin Brewery.

One of the most famous features is the Door of Reconciliation. In 1492, during a feud between the Butler and Fitzgerald families, James Butler took refuge in the Chapter House. Gerald Fitzgerald had a hole cut in the wooden door and reached his arm through it as a gesture of peace. Butler clasped his hand, ending the dispute. This episode is often linked to the phrase “to chance your arm.” The door, with its opening, is still preserved in the cathedral.

The cathedral is also closely associated with Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, who served as Dean from 1713 until his death in 1745. 2026 is the 300th anniversary of the first publication of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. Swift is buried in the cathedral beside Esther Johnson (“Stella”). Visitors can see memorials to Swift and a copy of his death mask, offering a striking physical reminder of one of Ireland’s greatest writers and most famous churchmen.

The tour combines medieval architecture, political history, and literary heritage in a single landmark building central to Dublin’s story.

https://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/

Marsh’s Library

HNS delegates will enjoy a ‘VIP Experience Tour’ of this gem of a library. The Director of Marsh’s Library will meet us at the front door and give us a tour of the ancient library looking at the history of the building, the famous readers who have studied there and some of the more unusual stories from its past. The Director will then bring us to a private viewing room where he will present a selection of rare books and manuscripts. The items shown can be tailored to our general interests. This experience is designed to take about 60 minutes. We can visit the gift shop and the hidden courtyard garden afterwards.

Marsh’s Library was founded in the early eighteenth century by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh (1638–1713) as the first public library in Ireland. He was appointed as Provost of Trinity College Dublin in 1679. Although there were earlier libraries, they were either in the university or in churches. This Library was intended to give anyone who was able to read a place to study. Public libraries were not very usual at the time and Marsh’s friends commented that neither Oxford nor London had a public library.

At the beginning, readers were allowed to go into the bays to choose their own books. Unfortunately, they were so interested in the books that they stole them from the library. By the mid-1760s, there were over 1000 books missing. The Governors made an order that no-one but the librarian was to go into the bays, and that readers were either to read at the table in the reading room where they could be supervised, or be locked into cages so that they could not steal the books. These cages are available to view today.

Bram Stoker came to read in Marsh’s in 1866. Because of the detailed records being kept then, it’s possible to know what books he read. Among others, he looked at travel books with maps of Transylvania in them. He probably read at the table in the old reading room, at the table which is still there.

In 1902, James Joyce came to Marsh’s to read and signed the visitors’ book. Later, he wrote in Ulysses: Come out of them, Stephen. Beauty is not there. Nor in the stagnant bay of Marsh’s library where you read the fading prophecies of Joachim Abbas. The anti-papal prophecies attributed to a medieval Italian abbot, Joachim of Flora, were on the index of books banned by the church authorities in Rome, and so Joyce would have had difficulty finding this book elsewhere.

Significant damage was inflicted on the library on the morning of Sunday 30 April 1916, at the end of the rebellion known as the Easter Rising. A British machine gun located in the Iveagh Buildings on Bull Alley sprayed the building with bullets, shattering windows and damaging books. The bullet holes can be seen to this day.

Additional Information

The six main sub-collections which make up the bulk of Marsh Library's historic materials include:

• Stillingfleet. The 10,720 books in the 1st gallery of the library which belonged to Edward Stillingfleet (1635-99).

• Benjamin Iveagh. The 4,142 books in Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park which belonged to Benjamin, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (1937-92).

• Bouhéreau. The 3,466 books in the historic Old Reading Room which belonged to the Huguenot refugee, Dr Élie Bouhéreau (1643-1719).

• Marsh. The 2,811 books in the 2nd gallery of the library which belonged to founder, Narcissus Marsh (1638–1713).

• Stearne. The 2,144 books in the 2nd gallery of the library which belonged to Dr John Stearne (1660–1745).

• Archives and Manuscripts. A collection of 1,220 items. These consist of manuscripts owned by the five individuals listed above and those donated subsequently by a range of individuals and institutions, as well as the historic archives of Marsh’s Library.

The precious books and manuscripts in the collections now form one of Ireland’s treasures.

https://marshlibrary.ie/

Accessibility

St Patrick’s Cathedral is wheelchair accessible.

Delegates will walk about 8-10 minutes to our lunch venue, the Hyatt Centric, which will involve crossing a busy road at traffic lights.

Afterwards, we will then walk back 8-10 minutes to Marsh’s Library, re-crossing the same busy road at the traffic lights.

Due to the historic nature of the building, Marsh’s main library is currently not accessible to wheelchairs. The Library is accessed by 17 steps from the front gate to the main entrance. A hand rail is located on the left-hand side while ascending. From there visitors climb 3 steps to the staircase (without a handrail) which consists of 22 stairs from the front door to the public galleries with a half landing after 11 steps. A bannister runs up the left-hand side as the visitor ascends. Exit is via a spiral staircase of 17 stairs at the end of the library or via the staircase at the start.