Lunchtime Lecture Series
The lunchtime lecture series has been running at Christ Church Cathedral since 1997, along with a memorial series to former dean’s verger Joe Coady (1987-2003), and annual St Stephen’s Day lectures, started by cathedral architect Sir Thomas Drew, which ran from 1891 until at least the 1960s.
To find out about future lectures, please contact the cathedral’s research advisor, Dr Stuart Kinsella.
Clear Stories of Stained Glass - February 2026
CLEAR STORIES of STAINED GLASS: Restoring the clerestory windows & their diocesan arms at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
Tuesday lectures in February 2026 at 13:10
TUESDAY 3 FEBRUARY
Conserving the cathedral in the 2020s
Frank Keohane
(Surveyor of the Fabric)
TUESDAY 10 FEBRUARY
Dioceses of the Irish church
The Revd Dr Adrian Empey
(Medieval Historian & Precentor of Christ Church, 2001-8)
TUESDAY 17 FEBRUARY
G.E. Street’s stained glass
Dr Caroline McGee
(Art Historian)
TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY
Street’s 1871-8 restoration: Unexplored aspects
Dr Stuart Kinsella
(Research Advisor)
Admission to lunchtime lecture series is always free, and all are most welcome. Please note the chapter house lecture room is unfortunately only accessible by stairs.
Supported by the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra
Of the Cloth: Ecclesiastical dressings - February 2024
A series of free lunchtime lectures were held at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin February 2024 on Tuesdays at 1.10pm entitled ‘Of the Cloth’, which examined all manner of ecclesiastical fabrics, from the dressing of altars to the robing of monks and clergy. Speakers included the art historian and textile conservator, Rachel Phelan who, on Tuesday 6 February, took as her subject the Myerscough altar frontals at Kilternan and Christ Church cathedral and the links with the school of embroidery at St John’s Sandymount.
The following Tuesday 13 February, Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, a Benedictine monk of Glenstal abbey and a medievalist specialising in Irish monastic and religious history, discussed medieval Irish ecclesiastical and liturgical vesture, and was followed on Tuesday 20 February by the dean of Limerick, the Very Revd Niall Sloane, who talked about post-Reformation clerical garb ranging from ruffs to gaiters. The archdeacon of Armagh, the Venerable Dr Peter Thompson, discussed the convergence of ecclesiastical and academic dress on Tuesday 27 February.
Admission to lunchtime lecture series is always free, and all are most welcome. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra
The lecture series was generously supported by the Friends of Christ Church, and was the 34th in a series which has run with some regularity for 27 years since the first on the Augustinian canons regular in October 1997.
Charles Villiers Stanford: Composer, Conductor, Professor - November 2024
A series of free lunchtime lectures were held at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin November 2024 on Tuesdays at 1.10pm on the subject of ‘Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924): Composer, Conductor, Professor’. This followed on from a series of events held to celebrate the life of C.V. Stanford the same year, on the centenary of his death, which included an organ recital series at St Patrick’s cathedral and the Stanford Festival held in Dublin from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 October 2024.
Since the publication of the two biographies of Stanford in 2002 by Paul Rodmell and Jeremy Dibble on the 150th anniversary of his birth (the latter of which was launched in the crypt of Christ Church), Stanford’s memory has been rekindled and more finely appreciated. Verdi heralded Stanford’s 1897 Requiem as the work of a master, while Vaughan Williams and Finzi were indignant at the neglect of his work on the centenary of his birth in 1952.
The November lecture series offered an opportunity to explore the life of Stanford from four different perspectives. On Tuesday 5 November, Dr David O’Shea of the Technological University, Dublin, whose book, The Choral Foundation of the Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle: Constitution, Liturgy, Music, 1814–1922, was published this year as part of the Irish Musical Studies series by the Boydell Press, talked about Stanford and Dublin, the city of his birth and his relationship to it. Dr Adèle Commins, Head of the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music at Dundalk Institute of Technology, who encouraged the cathedral to host the series, addressed Stanford’s operatic oeuvre with particular focus on his opera (recently revived), Shamus O’Brien, on Tuesday 12 November.
The second half of the lecture series was given by Stanford’s two biographers. Dr Paul Rodmell, senior lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Birmingham discussed Stanford’s larger scale orchestral compositions on Tuesday 19 November, focusing on his third ‘Irish’, fifth and seventh symphonies. Finally, on Tuesday 27 November, Professor Jeremy Dibble, recently retired from Durham University, who has just revised and expanded his Stanford biography published 22 years ago, spoke on Stanford and choirs. Appropriately, it is in a cathedral setting that Stanford’s choral works were considered, given that his church music has been a well–burnished staple of the repertoire that has kept his memory alive over the last century.
The lecture series was generously supported by both the Cathedral and the Friends of Christ Church, as well as being kindly facilitated by Professor Alan Ford.
Admission to lunchtime lecture series is always free, and all are most welcome. For further information, email the cathedral research advisor, Stuart Kinsella at ei.hcruhctsirhc@sevihcra
No Homes to Go To - February 2025
Visitors to Christ Church cathedral in Dublin are challenged every day by the figure of a homeless person lying on a bench, identifiable only from the stigmata visible on his exposed feet. The provocative sculpture by Timothy Schmalz installed in 2015 recalls the archbishop’s New Year reflection which noted that ‘A fruitfully functioning society in 2025 will look first and last to provision for the vulnerable’.
A series of free lunchtime lectures on Tuesdays in February at 1.10pm entitled ‘No homes to go to: Dublin charities and homelessness, 1790-2025’, explored historical and current themes of homelessness over more than two centuries in Dublin. Lectures focused on the charities that have sought to care for and empower the homeless from the late 18th century to the present day, along with an examination of the economic causes of the persistence of homelessness in the 21st century.
The first talk entitled ‘Serving the poor of Dublin since 1790: The Sick & Indigent Roomkeepers Society’, whose original building still stands north-east of Dublin castle, was given on Tuesday 4 February by the well-known historian, Felix Larkin, who was chairman of the society from 2012-16. You can listen back to this lecture here. The following week on Tuesday 11 February, a talk titled ‘The poor you will always have with you? A brief history of Dublin’s Mendicity Institution’ was given by the historian, Eimhin Walsh, who was a director of the institution from 2015-19 and co-wrote its bicentennial history with Audrey Woods in 2018: Dublin Outsiders: A history of the Mendicity Institution 1818-2018.
In 1985, four decades ago this year, Sister Stanislaus Kennedy founded Focus Ireland, and the third lecture in the series was given on Tuesday 18 February by its current CEO, Pat Dennigan, entitled ‘Challenging homeless, changing lives: Focus Ireland & 40 years of homelessness’. The series concluded with a talk on ‘Ireland’s housing crisis: What now? What next? on ’Tuesday 25 February given by Ronan Lyons, an internationally recognised expert on housing markets and housing price indices, and both director of Trinity Research in Social Sciences and associate professor in Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.
Admission was free and all were most welcome. Thanks are particularly due to the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin for their generous support of the lecture series and to the Dean, CEO and Director of Music for allowing the use of the space.
Marking Time: A Series of Afternoon Talks on Aspects of Time - March & April 2025
MARKING TIME: A SERIES OF AFTERNOON TALKS ON ASPECTS OF TIME
FRIDAYS IN SPRING 2025 at 14.00
CHAPTER HOUSE, CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL, DUBLIN
Friday 28 March – How Napoleon I changed our vision of time.
Adrian Le Havriel, former Curator of British Art, National Gallery of Ireland
Friday 4 April – Fashion essentials in history: Make-up, hair and underwear on cathedral monuments.
Hilary O’Kelly, fashion specialist, National College of Art and Design
Friday 11 April – This fleeting world; Changes and chances at Christ Church Cathedral Dublin.
Stuart Kinsella, Research Advisor, Christ Church Cathedral Dublin
Friday 25 April – A moment in time; The American O’Brien, Burns and Krehbiel collections and their support of Irish art.
Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch, former Curator of Irish Art, NGI
Tickets €10 (€30 for all 4), €5 for both Friends of Christ Church and concessions. Buy here. Free to the cathedral community.
Organised by the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral Dublin.
Please note: The Chapter House lecture room is unfortunately only accessible by stairs.
St. Laurence O’Toole and the Medieval Christian World
Dr Jesse Patrick Harrington, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Supported by Christ Church Cathedral Dublin, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland
This annual lecture series explores a new perspective on twelfth-century Ireland and the wider medieval Christian world through the life and legacy of St Lorcán Ó Tuathail (Laurence O’Toole, c. 1128–1180), Christ Church Cathedral’s key medieval prelate, builder, and patron saint. Drawing on rich yet little-studied manuscript sources from his early life and his roles as abbot of Glendalough, archbishop of Dublin, and apostolic legate and primate of Ireland, the series sheds light on one of the best-documented Irish figures of the Middle Ages and the worlds he helped shape.
The series will run each November from 2025 to 2028, beginning with the 800th anniversary of St Laurence’s canonisation and concluding in 2028 with an international conference marking both the 900th anniversary of his birth and the Millennium of Christ Church Cathedral. Each year’s programme aligns with his feast day.
Lecture Series Details
Location: Chapter House, Christ Church Cathedral. This lecture room is only accessible by stairs.
Dates: Tuesdays (4th, 11th, 18th and 25th) in November 2025
Time: 1:10 PM – 2:00 PM (50 minutes duration)
Admission: Free to attend and everyone is welcome
Lecture Series Schedule
This series focused on St Laurence’s early years prior to his election as archbishop of Dublin in 1162, exploring Gaelic Ireland on the eve of Strongbow’s invasion.
4 November: ‘Windows on a World: St. Laurence O’Toole at 800’
This lecture introduced St. Laurence O’Toole in the octocentenary of his canonisation as Dublin’s patron saint, along with the wide variety of medieval cultural, political, and religious worlds in England, France, Ireland, and Italy that may be opened by an exploration of the sources concerning this central figure of Ireland’s Gaelic and Norman history.
11 November: ‘Christening a Gaelic Prince: Birth, Baptism, and Family’
This lecture explored the Christian sacrament of baptism in the Middle Ages, introducing the key medieval institutions and methods of choosing godparents and Gaelic and Latin naming customs, through the narrative sources for St. Laurence’s birth and baptism.
18 November: ‘A Hostage to Vocation: Childhood and Education’
This lecture considered St. Laurence’s childhood, the biblical and medieval theme of saints in captivity, and the medieval institution of ‘hostage-taking’ in its Irish and European legal and social contexts, through the story of the saint’s captivity to his future brother-in-law Diarmait MacMurchada (Dermot McMurrough), king of Leinster.
25 November: ‘Abbot and Judge: St. Laurence and the Law’
This lecture explored monastic and legal institutions in medieval Ireland and Glendalough, and the far-reaching twelfth-century church reform movement in the universal Church, through St. Laurence’s consecration as abbot and his leadership in the pre-Norman reform of the Irish Church, Irish law, and Irish society.
About Dr. Jesse Patrick Harrington
Dr. Jesse Patrick Harrington is a Research Ireland Pathway Fellow at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies’ School of Celtic Studies (2025–2029), where he is preparing a new critical biography and edition of the medieval and early modern manuscript sources concerning St. Laurence O’Toole.
He holds his Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge and has worked as a postdoctoral and visiting researcher in Cork, Dublin, Paris, Poitiers, and Rome.
He is advisor to the international St. Laurence anniversary commemorations for 2025–2030, has lectured in nine countries, and his historical research has been quoted in French and Irish national broadcast media, by the Department of Foreign Affairs, and in Dáil Éireann.