What is the tallest church spire in Ireland?

I seem to remember hearing that Killarney, Limerick and Monaghan cathedrals are all around 280feet.

Hmmmm

The spire of St John’s Cathedral in Limerick is over 300 feet, and they personally lay claim to the title of tallest spire in Ireland.

fjp

one of the tallest in Dublin city must be the church on Thomas Street … it’s certainly the most visible

Truly Mr. Pugin designed the Cathedral to be in keeping with its surroundings. Its outlines reflect the majesty of the neighbouring mountains, with their pointed summits and their graceful curves.

The splendid spire, reaching, to 280 feet in height, seems to challenge the lordly Carran Tual, while the spirelets, as the other peaks, help to show forth the massive grandeur of their respective lords.

(From Killarney.ie)

St. John’s is the Seat of the Diocese of Limerick. The present day cathedral is built on the site of the old eighteenth-century one. Constructed between 1856 and 1861 under the supervision of architect Philip Charles Hardwick the Cathedral incorporates a tower with a 280 foot high spire. The building was consecrated by Cardinal Logue in 1894.

(From the Limerick Diocese website)

SS Augustine and John is the tallest extant spire in Dublin, but the high ground of its site exaggerates its height.

As for Monaghan, I currently cannot lay my hand to the data about its height — its somewhere here.

Perhaps Paul has a figure, he is a native.

Does nobody use metres to measure length (and height) anymore????

I believe it is St Johns RC Cathedral in Limerick. It is 280ft high or 85 metres. This is usually quoted in tourist leaflets for Limerick.

Don’t know about the Cathedral in Monaghan.

Waiting on a reply from Monaghan Museum, so far we have Killarney and Limerick on 280 feet.

According to the local museum, it is indeed 280 feet tall. I definitely remember hearing years ago that it was the same height as Limerick.

For those of you unfamiliar with St Macartan’s….. more here

The spire of St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork, to the pinnacle of the cross, is 300 feet.

The spire, designed by Ashlin and Coleman, was built by John Maguire of Cork. The copper cross was raised in March 1915. The clock and the carillon of 52 bells were installed in May 1916.

As far as I know the spire of the Church of John The Baptist, Lispole, Co Kerry is the highest above sea level in Europe. I think Ulm cathedral in Germany is quite tall as well. There are a lot of low ones in North Kerry. I wouln’t like to fall off any of them mind.

Hmmm I think we have regional pride taking over now… I doubt that Kerry statistic.

Ulm is the worlds tallest I think at 525 feet, simply awesome to stand beneath and look at.

http://germany.archiseek.com/baden_wurttemburg/ulm/munster.html

A view of the spire of Cobh Cathedral, south elevation.

I recently came across a site dealing with the tallest spire worldwide and the top entry for Ireland was St. John’s Cathedral, Limerick which they said was 308ft. or 93.8m.

@Jas wrote:

St. John’s is the Seat of the Diocese of Limerick. The present day cathedral is built on the site of the old eighteenth-century one. Constructed between 1856 and 1861 under the supervision of architect Philip Charles Hardwick the Cathedral incorporates a tower with a 280 foot high spire. The building was consecrated by Cardinal Logue in 1894.

(From the Limerick Diocese website)

Think I’d go with the horse’s mouth on this one…

The spire at 280 feet tall is one of the three tallest in the country was completed in 1883 to the designs of local architect M.A. Hennessy. St. Mary’s Cathedral in Killarney and St. Macartan’s in Monaghan are also the same height.

It would appear that not only does the Limerick Diocesan site agree with you, but also this site (Archiseek) in which I found the above quote.

So it would seem a tie between Limerick, Killarney and Monaghan unless Praxitelesat #12 is correct and St. Colman’s truly does stand at 300ft,

Does anyone have a really long measuring tape!!!!!!!!! 😀

I was always of the opinion Limerick’s was the tallest.

Maynooth is the tallest free standing spire in Ireland as far as I know

In an un-published thesis “Vision Marerialised: The building of St. Colman’s Cathedral,Cobh (186801917) by Ann Wilson, submitted to the Dept of History of Art and Design, 2002 for an MA Degree National College of Art and Design NUI, she states on p.71 that the spire on St. Colman’s is 287ft (87.47760 m.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_churches

Wikiupedia figures or data is always suspect – they have St Johns as 28 feet taller than Limerick Diocese has it. Personally I’d go with the diocesan information.

I think that St. Colmans in Cobh just looks the tallest because it’s up on a hill. But even if it wasn’t on a hill, it would still look extremely tall compared to other cathedrals. Wikipedia says it is the tallest at 313 ft, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

Wikipedia is very good for common topics but i’d expect that the exact height of a church in limerick might not be 100% accurate.

Here are the original drawins from 1911 for the completion of the spèire of Cobh Cathedral. You will notice the markings on the right hand side noting that the height of the spire from its base to the foot of the cross in 200 feet. Well, if someone would measure the height of the tower to the base of the spire and add the height of the Cross, we should have the height of the spire. Anne Wilson in her excellent study of Cobh Cathedral mentions a height of 300 feet. I have no doubt, however, that Cobh exceeds Limerick in height.

I see a little of the “Cork Abu” in Praxiteles’ insistence on the superiority of Cobh Cathedral. I had always heard that Limerick was the highest, followed by Maynooth. Who was it – O’Casey? – that wrote of Maynooth’s spire: “a dagger through the heart of Ireland”?

In any case, concerning the spires of Germany: I have passed Ulm by train (sadly, I hadn’t the chance to stop) and the spire is arresting. However, having stood and gazed long at the façade and spires of Köln, I have to say they seem higher and are certainly awful (in the true sense!). Some images…

Re: The Muenster in Ulm

Do you not think “not stopping” and “arresting” an oxymoron?

Very keen, Prax, very keen! 😉

However, I think you will find that the original meaning of oxymoron is “a rhetorical figure by which contradictory terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression”. My Oxford adds rather roguishly “Now often loosely = a contradiction in terms.”

But in any case, to misquote Emily Dickinson:

“Because I could not stop for Ulm, Ulm kindly stopped for me…

Well, I did not want to be too blunt about it, but if you insist yourself on using the term “contradiction”, what can I do about it…?