ST.
COLUMB'S CATHEDRAL & CHAPTER HOUSE MUSEUM
Londonderry’s Great Reformation Church
St Columb’s
Cathedral dominates the skyline of the old city of Londonderry, with
its spire rising high above the city’s thick
stone walls, built when the original town of Derry had London added to
its name, though commonly left off again now. Completed in 1633 of gray
stone in a style called Planter's Gothic at the city's highest point,
St Columb’s
Cathedral is Derry’s
oldest surviving building. It was the first purely Reformation church
built
in the world and played a major role in the troubled Protestant and Catholic
conflicts of Northern Ireland. St Columb’s Cathedral is named for
the 6th Century Irish cleric Saint Columba, who founded a settlement
at Derry before sailing for the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland
where he established the monastery whose monks would after St. Columba’s
death in 597 create Ireland’s famous illustrated texts, the Book
of Kells (see Trinity
Book of Kells Dublin)
St
Columb’s
Cathedral is connected to the lives of several rather colorful characters.
Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander wrote three famous
hymns in the Anglican Christian tradition "All Thing Bright and
Beautiful’, “Once is Royal David’s City” and “There
is a Green Hill Far Away” along with volumes of poetry and other
hymns. Augustus Frederick Hervey, known as the Earl Bishop, inherited
the title of Earl of Bristol in 1779 after being appointed the Bishop
of Derry by his brother, then
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was responsible for the building 
of
the first Catholic Church in Derry after the reformation,
the Long Tower Church and the first bridge across the River Foyle. He
spent much of his later life traveling on tours of Europe, so much that
a string of Bristol Hotels were named for him. Guides at St Columb’s
will claim he was the inventor Harvey’s Bristol Cream, for his
preference for the distinct form of blended sherry, but the name comes
from the Harvey brothers, wine merchants of Bristol, who sold the product.
But the Earl Bishop’s kidney shaped desk (with its green leather
top and gold leaf accidentally varnished brown
by a since-fired maintenance man) can be found 
in
the Chapter House Museum at the Cathedral along
with the massive old pad locks and keys to the gates of the Derry which
saved the city and the silver Promise Chalice which commemorated King
James I's creation of the county of Londonderry in 1613. The Earl
Bishop’s
rather unique pulpit, which allowed him to sit his rather corpulent self
at services is still in the church. Hanging above are the military banners
captured after the 105 day English Catholic and French Jacobite Siege
of Derry in 1689, during which St Columb’s Cathedral along with
Enniskillen's castle (see Enniskillen
Castle Museums) provided refuge
for the Protestants of Ulster when the thick walls of Derry held out
against
assault.
In
the Cathedral grounds among the 18th Century gravestones with skull
and crossbones marking
the “saved” to be easily recognized
come the Resurrection, can be found the “Heroes Mound” paying
tribute to the bravery of the thirteen Apprentice Boys who shut the gates
of the walls and prevented the city being overrun by the forces trying
to secure Ulster for Catholic convert King James II, already deposed
in London by the time of the siege (see Derry's
Siege Walls Tour).
In the porch lobby of St Columb’s
Cathedral is the giant mortar ball fired over the walls into the churchyard,
containing terms of surrender which offered safe passage to the soldiers
and inhabitants of Derry who would abandon the city. None did, and
the city outlasted the king and his Lt. General Hamilton. Also look
for the
silver cross of nails and the carvings of the benches by an inventive
craftsman with too much imagination.
St Columb’s also bears the marks of the modern conflicts of “the troubles” (see Tower Museum - Story of Derry). Many of its original stained glass windows were destroyed by the bombs of terror during the long conflicts of Northern Ireland. The windows have been replaced and Londonderry has returned to a period of peace they hope will last, though the echoes of the Apprentice Boys still haunt the walls. There is no formal admission charge to St Columb’s cathedral and the Chapter House Museum, though a “donation” of a very modest £2 is expected. © Bargain Travel Europe
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St
Columb's Cathedral
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