Background
On 2 June 2024, we posted A Roman Catholic Cathedral in Dublin? which reported that in an homily on 2 June 2024, Dr Dermot Farrell, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, announced:
“I am asking the Holy Father to designate St Mary’s as the Cathedral for Dublin…This will involve having St Mary’s and St Andrew’s as twin pillars for the worthy celebration of Catholic life in Dublin.”
There was then no Roman Catholic cathedral in the Republic of Ireland’s capital city, and there had not been one since the Protestant Reformation. Dublin possessed the Roman Catholic Pro Cathedral of St Mary, and the two Cathedrals of the Church of Ireland; the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (a.k.a. Christ Church Cathedral) and St Patrick’s Cathedral. The post reported the development in the plans of the diocese which in 2023 it was announced that the Pro-Cathedral would lose its current status and become a basilica, while St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row, south of the Liffey, would become the city’s cathedral.