| Msgr. Patrick S. Brennan |
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Southwest of Dublin, on the way to Cork, we visited the Rock of Cashel, Ireland's most famous group of ecclesiastical ruins. The limestone mass—the "rock"— rises 300 feet above the valley floor and was originally a stone fort. In 1101, it was turned over to the church, which began a centuries-long building program whose ruins we see today. Most impressive is St. Patrick's Cathedral, consecrated in 1169, as well as Cormac's Chapel (1127), the finest example of Hiberno-Romanesque architecture in Ireland.