St Mary's on Marlborough Street served as the principal Catholic church of Dublin from its dedication in 1825 until November 2025, when Pope Leo XIV raised it from pro-cathedral to full cathedral status. The Greek Revival building, whose design is attributed to John Sweetman on disputed evidence, hosted the lying in state of Daniel O'Connell and the state funeral of Michael Collins. It is also the home of the Palestrina Choir, in which John McCormack once sang.
A public competition for the new metropolitan chapel was announced in 1814 and the building went up between 1814 and 1825, before Catholic Emancipation. The winning drawings were signed only with the letter P, and the question of who really designed the church has never been settled. Daniel O'Connell attended a thanksgiving Mass here in 1829 after Emancipation, and in 1847 his body lay in state in the church for four days before burial in Glasnevin. Michael Collins received a state funeral here in 1922. The Palestrina Choir, endowed by Edward Martyn, was installed in 1903, and the tenor John McCormack sang in it in 1904 and 1905. Alterations followed for the centenary of Catholic Emancipation in 1928 and the Eucharistic Congress of 1932. In November 2025, two hundred years after its dedication, the church finally became St Mary's Cathedral.
Mother church of the Archdiocese; home of the Palestrina Choir.
Constituted 14 November 1825. Parishes of St Mary's and St Francis Xavier, Gardiner Street, merged July 2024.
Fragments gathered while researching this church: stories, curiosities, people and dates.
One account shared in a local forum recalls that the 11am Sunday Mass at the Pro-Cathedral is a solemn sung Latin Mass, and another poster explains that it is the post Vatican II liturgy celebrated in Latin rather than the older rite.
Source: Boards.ie
The winning competition drawings of 1814 carried only the letter P. Authorship remains unresolved between John Sweetman and, in some accounts, the French architect Louis Hippolyte Le Bas.
Because the medieval Christ Church Cathedral passed to the Church of Ireland at the Reformation, St Mary's held only provisional status, formalised in 1886, until Pope Leo XIV made it a full cathedral in November 2025.
The heritage record notes three statues added to the Greek Doric portico around 1845.
Also known as: St Mary's Pro-Cathedral
Mass times
Checked 10 Jul 2026