St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin
Saint Patrick's Cathedral () in Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1191, is the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. With its spire, St. Patrick's is the tallest church (not Cathedral) in Ireland and the largest. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin, is designated as the local Cathedral of the diocese of Dublin and Glendalough.
Sigtrygg Silkbeard
Sigtrygg was also, according to the "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", "a patron of the arts, a benefactor of the church, and an economic innovator". In the 990s, he established Ireland's first mint, in Dublin. He established a bishopric at Dublin and in 1028 he made a pilgrimage to Rome. It is thus possible to attribute the origins of the establishment of territorial bishoprics in Ireland on the Roman model, one of the most important results of 11th-century Irish Church Reform, to Sigtrygg. He went on to found Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, which today is the oldest building in Dublin, but relatively young in comparison to the many monastic cathedrals in the rest of Ireland. Like many of the other coastal cathedrals in Ireland, it is of Hiberno-Norse origin. The cathedral, initially a wooden building, was rebuilt in stone in the 1180s following the arrival of the Anglo-Normans to Ireland, led by Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.