St. Peter's Church Drogheda

The Church of St. Peter’s was an important ecclesiastical centre, being used as a Pro-Cathedral for Armagh Diocese for several centuries. The Primates of Ireland of the time lived either in Termonfeckin, Dromiskin or Drogheda, and very seldom visited the Northern part of the Diocese because of the unsettled state of the country. Synods of the Diocese were constantly held in St. Peter’s up to 1559, and many consecrations of Bishops and ordinations were held there. It is also the burial place of several Primates: John Colton (d. 1404), Nicholas Fleming (d. 1416), John Swayne (d. after 1450), Octavian de Spinellis (de Palatio) (d. 1513), Thomas Lancaster (d. 1584), John Long (d. 1589), Henry Ussher (d. 1613), Christopher Hampton (d. 1625). The medieval church was evidently a very large building. It contained six chapels – St. Anne’s (the principal one, which at the time supported two chaplains), St. Martin’s, St. Patrick’s, St. Peter’s, St John the Baptist’s, St. George’s.