The story of St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney

This cathedral was designed by the renowned English architect Augustus Welby Pugin, who is said to have drawn inspiration from the ruins of Ardfert Cathedral, especially in the slender triple lancets of the east and west walls. Construction began in 1842, but the great famine and a lack of funds stopped the work several times. When it restarted in 1853, James Joseph McCarthy designed the interior decoration, and in 1855 the building was ready for regular worship.

The spire and nave were only completed in 1907, by the Dublin architects Ashlin and Coleman, who had designed Cobh Cathedral. Look at the west end: three tall lancet windows above a very low entrance door, in a mixture of brown and grey stone. Notice, too, that it stands in a huge field rather than in the middle of old Killarney, more like a priory than a cathedral.

In 1973 the interior was reordered under Bishop Eamonn Casey, a renovation some regard as controversial.