The cathedral has a 147 feet tower with a 101 feet spire. The cathedral's website tells us:
The original spire of the Cathedral was blown down in a storm in 1316. The following year the Cathedral was set on fire during the Bruce Wars and many precious objects were looted in the confusion.
Following a more serious fire in the nave in 1362 repairs were commissioned by Thomas Minot, Archbishop of Dublin. Minot also built a 147-foot tower at the North-West angle of the Cathedral, employing 60 men in its construction. It is made of Irish limestone, with walls ten feet thick.
The Tower is still know as Minot's Tower today, although Minot's original Tower collapsed in c.1394, taking part of the North Nave Aisle with it. Therefore a second rebuilding was required at the end of the fourteenth century. The four western bays in the North Nave Aisle, which, for an unknown reason, are higher and wider than the rest, were also built around this time.
The first floor of Minot's Tower may have originally served as a library. On the next floor is the Ringing Chamber. The Cathedral Tower now houses a peel of bells donated by Edward Cecil Guinness in 1897. The bells hang in the fourth floor of the tower, two floors above the Ringing Chamber.
One of the first public clocks in Dublin had been installed in the third floor of Minot's tower by 1509. This raised the Cathedral to the same status of public building as Dublin Castle. The time is shown on two copper dials, eight feet in diameter, on the West and North-facing sides of the tower. The granite spire, 101 feet high, was designed by George Semple and added to the top of the tower in 1749.
The cathedral's website tells us about the bells and bell ringing:
Bells have been part of Saint Patrick's Cathedral for a long time. Their first mention was in 1244, and we know that in 1362 there was a fire in Dublin and the steeple and the North East corner of the Cathedral were destroyed, and so were the bells. The Minot Tower which still stands today was built as a replacement for the steeple. It was built in 1370 and subsequently several bells were installed.
In 1443, the Dean and Chapter put a large bell in the Tower and in 1670 a peal of 8 bells was installed. In 1897 the ring was replaced by a ring of 10 bells as a gift from Lord Iveagh. They were cast by Taylor's of Loughborough. In 1909, the ring was increased to 12 bells and in 1925 the ring was increased to 14 bells. With the addition of a new bell in 2009, this brings the total to 15.
Bell ringing is a traditional skill and for many, a contribution to church life. It is sociable and you make friends from many walks of life, locally and globally. It is suitable for all over the age of twelve and is practised in many countries, including the British Isles, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Bell ringing can be mastered by most people. With training and practice the learner can move on to ringing with the rest of the band (team). Bell ringers meet for weekly practice, and also meet to ring before Sunday services, as a traditional call to worship. They also meet to ring for other important occasions. They take day trips to towers in Ireland and to ring in a number of towers as part of a few days' tour at home or abroad.
Change ringing originated in the sixteenth century when church bells began to be hung with a full wheel. This gave ringers control of the bell allowing sets of bells (rings) to be rung in a continuously changing pattern - hence, change ringing. Bells are hung to create a musical scale. A method is a pre-defined sequence of changes within the musical scale.
The Tourist Information Dublin website tells us:
St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, ("Árd Eaglais Naomh Pádraig" in Irish), was founded in 1191, and is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland cathedrals, and the largest church in Ireland.
Unusually it is not the seat of a bishop, as Dublin's Church of Ireland Archbishop has his seat in the nearby Christ Church Cathedral.
Saint Patrick is believed to have passed through Dublin on his travels around Ireland. He is said to have baptised converts from paganism to Christianity in a well close to where the cathedral now stands, so in memory of his visit a small wooden church was built on the site, one of the four Celtic parish churches in Dublin.
In 1191 John Comyn, the first Anglo-Norman archbishop of Dublin, raised this ancient church of Saint Patrick to the status of a cathedral. The present building, was erected in the 13th Century but little of this original building remains. From the very earliest years there were problems with seepage of water, with a number of floods, especially in the later years of the 18th century, caused by the surrounding branches of the River Poddle - even in the 20th century, it is reported that the water table was within 7.5 feet of the floor thus ensuring there would never be a crypt or basement area. Over the centuries as the elements, religious reformation, and persecution took their toll, the cathedral fell into disrepair, despite many attempts to restore it. Between 1860 and 1900 a full-scale restoration was carried out instigated by Benjamin Guinness in 1860-65, and inspired by the fear that the cathedral was in imminent danger of collapse.
There is almost no precedent for a two-cathedral city and this was the source of much tension over the years until this eventually settled, more-or-less, by the signing of a six-point agreement of 1300, Pacis Compositio which was in force until 1870.
Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was Dean of the cathedral from 1713 to 1745. Many of his famous sermons and "Irish tracts" (such as the Drapier's Letters) were given during his stay as Dean.
It is believed that Saint Patrick's was the origin of the expression "chancing your arm" (meaning to take a risk), when Gerald, Earl of Kildare cut a hole in a door there, still to be seen, and thrust his arm through it, in an effort to call a truce with another Earl, James of Ormond, in 1492.