Cathedral · Tuam

St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam

Inside a Victorian cathedral in Tuam stands the largest Romanesque arch in Ireland, all that is left of the church the High King Turlough O'Connor built in the twelfth century. St Jarlath founded the first church here about 501; the O'Connors made Tuam their seat in the eleventh century and the town became the archdiocese's centre; and when the railway and the garrison swelled the Anglican population in the 1860s, Sir Thomas Newenham Deane built the present cathedral around what survived.

Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.

Photograph of Tuam C.I. Cathedral, Co. Galway, Ireland
JohnArmagh, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Saint Marys Cathedral, Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Tuam High Cross on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.

Three cathedrals on one site

Only two bishops are recorded between Jarlath and the eleventh century, Ferdomnach in 781 and Eugene mac Clerig in 969. The nave of O'Connor's cathedral collapsed in a fire in 1184 and only the stone chancel arch survived; the de Burgos built a new cathedral in the fourteenth century to the east of it, so that the arch became the entrance to the older part, which served as a chapter house. Deane's third cathedral, begun about 1861 under Dean Charles James Seymour and finished in 1878, stands on the site of the first and incorporates the arch, while the de Burgo church remains beside it.

Silver and burials

The oldest communion silver dates from the reign of Charles II; the earlier pieces vanished in the Cromwellian years and some came back, and four of the six present pieces are pre-1700. Archbishops Nehemiah Donnellan, William Daniel, Samuel Pullen and Jemmett Browne are buried here. The cathedral belongs today to the Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe. The model on this page pins it with the Catholic cathedral and the High Cross; the Tuam Cathedral guide explains why the town has two.

Questions people ask

What is special about St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam?

Its 12th-century Hiberno-Romanesque chancel arch, the only surviving part of Turlough O'Connor's cathedral, now inside the 1878 building by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane.

When was the present St Mary's Cathedral built?

Between about 1861 and 1878, on the site of the first cathedral.

Is St Mary's Tuam Catholic or Church of Ireland?

Church of Ireland, in the Diocese of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe; the Catholic cathedral is the Cathedral of the Assumption nearby.

Written from Wikipedia, "St Mary's Cathedral, Tuam" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.