As the name implies this church is the mother church for the 60 plus parishes that make up the Diocese of Limerick. The cathedral was built in the late 1850's, as a replacement church for the previous small parish church with the tower added in 1890. An engraving of the original church can be seen above an internal door inside the building. Full details of the many lovely features of the church can be obtained in the free multilingual brochures available inside the building. The Cathedral is located at Cathedral Place / John's Square just outside where the walls of medieval Irishtown would have stood, about 10 minutes walk from the main tourist office. The most impressive part of the building is the tower, supposed to be the highest church spire in Ireland, well located and clearly seen for all directions within the city and beyond. For such a big building the tower has a light quality about it. To visit the interior of the Cathedral you may need to check locally about opening times as it is not open everyday. If you take the time to discover this old part of Limerick, close to the Cathedral just inside the grounds of St John's Hospital is the last surviving city gate of medieval Limerick, also in the area are some remains of the city wall. In the grounds of the Catherdal stands the statue of Ireland's and Limerick's hero Partick Sarsfield while across the road in St John's Square you will find the first Georgian townhouses in Limerick built c1750. These houses are faced with local limestone rather than the usual red brick in the rest of Georgian Limerick.
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