THE history of the Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh and its links to Irish America have been celebrated at a service to mark the building's 150th anniversary.
Sunday's thanksgiving Mass was celebrated by Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and marked 150 years since the cathedral's dedication in August 1873.
Archbishop Dolan referred to the building's namesake, St Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and spoke during the service of a faith "so indebted" to the island of Ireland, "that the cathedral we savor on an island called Manhatten shares the patronage of the saint we feel so close to on these historic acres in Armagh, on whose feast in March the city comes to a stop".
Archbishop of Armagh and all-Ireland Primate, Eamon Martin, spoke of how building work on the cathedral paused during the Great Famine, and referred to support for its construction from across the Atlantic.
Read more: Catholic Church marks 150 years of Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh
"We know that among the most generous contributors to the building of this beautiful cathedral were the Irish in America," he said.
"Those who had fled because of famine, or those who had gone to work there maybe a generation or so beforehand."
He added: "Many of the donations from the United States, and indeed from New York, came in not just from the well-do-do who had made it in America, but also from some of the laborers, the workers, who had pledged to give a shilling, or a shilling a month so that it could go back for the building of the cathedral of St Patrick here in Armagh."
