05.06.2014
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Receives Major Tourism Grant
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin has received a significant funding boost with the announcement of State funding for city centre tourism projects. The cathedral will receive €152,650 to develop a new exhibition area and education space where visitors can learn about different aspects of the Cathedral’s cultural and religious history.
The first phase of this project will be open in July and will entail a major new exhibition focusing on the First World War, the effect that the conflict had on the cathedral’s community and the changing nature of Remembrance within the Cathedral. This exhibition, designed by the cathedral’s education officer Andrew Smith, Liam Furlong of Space.ie and Edward Bisgood of Bushypark Ironworks will run until 2018.
The next phase of the project will include touch screen facilities, animations showing how the city developed from 800AD to 1500, themed video clips on local attractions, and a detailed history of the Cathedral. A new audio visual area will play themed videos showing how the Cathedral developed within the wider city.
Visitors will also be able to practice calligraphy, and try out brass rubbing, which should prove popular with some sections of the UK market. The visitor centre will put the Cathedral’s history into context with other local sites such as Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle.
The funding is being allocated under Fáilte Ireland’s Capital Investment Programme and the other project to benefit is the development of a new whiskey museum on College Green.
Announcing the grants, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, said: “These two city centre projects should prove a hit with tourists. St Patrick’s Cathedral gets more than 370,000 visitors every year and many of them want to learn more about the cathedral. The new interpretative centre will tell the story of the Cathedral, and the development of Dublin”.
Fáilte Ireland CEO, Shaun Quinn emphasised Dublin’s strategic importance for overseas tourism to Ireland. Mr Quinn added: “Increasingly, a successful tourism destination needs to be able to tell its story and to provide opportunities for visitors to engage with that narrative. The projects announced today – as part of the Dublin Discovery Trail – allow us to do just that and contribute to our overall ambition of marketing Dublin as a ‘must–see’ and ‘must–do’ destination”.
St Patrick’s Cathedral is located in an important position adjacent to the Dublin Discovery Trail route next to a cluster of visitor attractions including St Werburgh’s Church, Dublinia and Christchurch. The Dublin Discovery Trail runs across the city from College Green to Kilmainham, and focuses on Dublin’s culture and heritage.
Photo caption: St Patrick’s Cathedral Education Officer, Andrew Smith, demonstrating how to build an arch in the cathedral’s South Transept.