The cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Dublin - commonly called Christ Church - is, by Irish standards, rich in archival and architectural remains, and so it comes as something of a surprise to learn that this book - now in paperback - is the first full-scale history of the cathedral to be written. That the time has now come for the situation to be redressed owes much to the attention that has been paid in recent years to the records and the architecture of Christ Church. The painstaking work of scholars - from the different academic disciplines of history, music, literature, and art - have distilled from the evidence much that had previously been hidden. Christ Church has reflected the changing face of Ireland, in its architecture, administration, worship, and in the people who made those things possible. It has experienced the trauma of the Reformation, and, centuries later, of disestablishment and of political independence. Whether pre-Reformation as an Augustinian priory, or post-Reformation as the monarch's Chapel Royal in Ireland, 'where the government came to church, ' or indeed from the late 19th Century as metropolitan cathedral for the Church of Ireland dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, Christ Church has played a prominent part in national and civic life. Furthermore, the cathedral archives throw intriguing light on many aspects of everyday life in Dublin