Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [69]
You will need to phone or visit the Sexton at 8 Castle St to see inside.
ST AUDOEN’S CHURCHES
St Audoen, the 7th-century bishop of Rouen and patron saint of Normandy, must have had a few friends in Dublin to have two churches named after him. Both are just west of Christ Church Cathedral. The more interesting of the two is the smaller Church of Ireland (Map; 677 0088; Cornmarket, High St; admission free; 9.30am-4.45pm Jun-Sep), the only surviving medieval parish church still in use in Dublin. It was built between 1181 and 1212, though recent excavations unearthed a 9th-century burial slab, suggesting that it was built on top of an even older church. Its tower and door date from the 12th century and the aisle from the 15th century, but the church today is mainly a 19th-century restoration.
As part of the tour, you can explore the ruins, as well as the present church and the visitor centre in St Anne’s Chapel, which houses a number of tombstones of leading members of Dublin society from the 16th to the 18th centuries. At the top of the chapel is the tower, which houses the three oldest bells in Ireland, dating from 1423. Although the church’s exhibits are hardly spectacular, the building itself is very beautiful and a genuine slice of medieval Dublin.
The church is entered from the north through an arch off High St. Part of the old city wall, this arch was built in 1240 and is the only surviving reminder of the city gates.
Joined onto the older Protestant St Audoen’s is the newer and larger St Audoen’s Catholic Church (Cornmarket, High St; admission free; 9.30am-5.30pm Jun-Sep, 10am-4.30pm Oct-May), a large church whose claim to local fame is Father ‘Flash’ Kavanagh, who used to read Mass at high speed so that his large congregation could head off to more absorbing Sunday pursuits, such as football.
GUINNESS STOREHOUSE
The most popular visit in town is the beer-lover’s Disneyland, a multimedia bells-and-whistles homage to the country’s most famous export and the city’s most enduring symbol. The Guinness Storehouse (Map; 408 4800; www.guinness-storehouse.com; St James’s Gate Brewery; adult/child/student under 18yr/student over 18yr & senior €15/5/9/11; 9.30am-5pm Sep-Jun, 9.30am-7pm Jul-Aug), the only part of the massive, 26-hectare St James’s Gate Brewery open to the public, is a suitable cathedral in which to worship the black gold; shaped like a giant pint of Guinness, it rises seven impressive storeys high around a stunning central atrium. At the top is the head, represented by the Gravity Bar, with a panoramic view of Dublin.
The Gravity Bar is also the best place to get an idea of how big the brewery actually is. From the time Arthur Guinness (1725–1803) founded the St James’s Gate Brewery in 1759, the operation has expanded down to the Liffey and across both sides of the street; at one point, it had its own railway and there was a giant gate stretching across St James’s St, hence the brewery’s proper name. At its apogee in the 1930s, it employed over 5000 workers, making it the largest employer in the city. Increased automation has reduced the workforce to around 600, but it still produces 2.5 million pints of stout every day.
You’ll get to drink one of those pints at the end of your tour, but not before you have walked through the extravaganza that is the Guinness floor show, spread across 1.6 hectares and involving an array of audiovisual, interactive displays that cover pretty much all aspects of the brewery’s history and the brewing process. It’s slick and sophisticated, but you can’t ignore the man behind the curtain: the extensive exhibit on the