Downpatrick

Introducing Downpatrick

St Patrick’s mission to spread Christianity to Ireland began and ended at Downpatrick. Ireland’s patron saint is associated with numerous places in this corner of Down – he made his first convert at nearby Saul, and is buried at Down Cathedral – and on St Patrick’s Day (17 March) the town is crammed with crowds of pilgrims and revellers.

Downpatrick – now County Down’s administrative centre – was settled long before the saint’s arrival. His first church here was constructed inside the earthwork dún (fort) of Rath Celtchair, still visible to the southwest of the cathedral. The place later became known as Dún Pádraig (Patrick’s Fort), anglicised to Downpatrick in the 17th century.

In 1176 the Norman John de Courcy is said to have brought the relics of St Colmcille and St Brigid to Downpatrick to rest with the remains of St Patrick, hence the local saying, ‘In Down, three saints one grave do fill, Patrick, Brigid and Colmcille’. Later the town declined along with the cathedral until the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Southwell family developed the old town centre you see today. The best of its Georgian architecture is centred on English St and the Mall, which lead up to the cathedral.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009