Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Waterford

About

The Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore located in Barronstrand Street, Waterford City, Ireland. The cathedral is the oldest post-Reformation Catholic cathedral in Ireland, pre-dating the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 by some 36 years.

The cathedral was designed by John Roberts in 1793 (after the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793) and has the distinction of being the oldest post-Reformation cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. The cathedral was built under the direction of Rev. Dean Thomas Hearn, D.D., the cathedral dean. Roberts also designed Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford, and is said to have supervised the construction of the Catholic cathedral by attending the site every morning, and apparently 'died from the effects of a cold caught within the unfinished structure'. A chapel – known in the city as the 'Big Chapel' – had previously stood on the same ground, having been constructed there in 1693 at the height of the Penal Laws on the request of the Roman Catholic community of Waterford. The Big Chapel replaced a converted store, known as the Old Store, which was adopted as...