Originally a Viking wooden church was at this site when Strongbow - the Norman leader of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland 1169-72 decided to have a cathedral built here in the 1170s. Strongbow is buried in the nave. Handel's Messiah was 1st performed here!!! The Cathedral to this day remains Anglican in the capital of a country where the population is 90% Catholic... and the country is free from English rule since 1921...
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