ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 13, 18 July 1884, Page 3

ARMAGH CATHEDRAL.

The original edifice was erected by St. Patrick in the year 445. It appears from the authority of the tripartite life of the fouader, to have been an oblong structure 140 feet in length, and divided into nave and choir, according to the custom of all our ancient churches. This sacred edifice did not escape the sacrilegious devastations of the Northern Pirates. It was pillaged and burned, together with the other buildings of the city, in 839 and 850. In 890 it was partly broken down by the Danes of Dublin, under' the command of Gluniarn. In 995 it was burned, by an accidental conflagration, generated by lightning ; and again in the year 1020. In 1125 the roof was repaired with tiles by the Primate Celsus, having, for the period of one hundred and thirty years, after the fire in 995, been only repaired in part. A more perfect restoration was effected by the primate Gelasiua in 1145, on which occasion, according to the annalists, he constructed a kiln or furnace for the preparation of lime, which kiln appears to have been quadrangular, aud was of the extraordinary dimension of 60 feet on every side. After this period this venerable remain appears to have suffered little, save from age, till the 17th century, when, on the 2nd of May, in the year 1642, it was burned by Sir Phelim O'Neill. After this injury it was deemed no longer serviceable, and the late church was erected on its site in 1675 by the benevolent Archbishop Margetson. — Exchange.