Lisburn Church of Ireland cathedral marks its 400th anniversary

​The original cathedral building, located centrally in the Co Antrim city, overlooking the River Lagan, was built in the early 1600s by Anglican nobleman Sir Fulke Conway, a Welsh officer in the English army.

The place of worship, dedicated to the disciple St Thomas, was essentially a chapel of ease for Conway's new castle, at what was then called Lisnagarvey.

Conway and his family settled in Lisnagarvey and built the castle on the highest point overlooking the river Lagan in what is now Castle Gardens Park.

In 1623 he constructed a church dedicated to St Thomas.

The church was much smaller than the present cathedral but in 1641 it was destroyed in the Irish sectarian rebellion which impacted on a large part of Ulster.

The foundations of the second church were laid in 1642, with rebuilding taking 23 years, and by 1662, King Charles 11 established the church of St Thomas as Christ Church cathedral.

Renowned Anglican cleric the Rev Jeremy Taylor was then Church of Ireland bishop of Connor serving in the parish of 'Lisure' and 'Lisnagarvie'. In that year, the term Lisburn was used for the first time.

In the more settled period that followed the Williamite wars of the 1690s, Lisburn and the Lagan Valley region prospered but in April 1707, the town and the church and castle were destroyed in a disastrous fire.

There seemed to be no urgency to rebuild Conway's castle for the defence of the town, but in August 1708, the foundation of the new church of Lisburn was laid, with construction of the present building completed in 1719.

The colony of Huguenots settled in Lisburn in 1698, where they established themselves as weavers and bleachers under the guidance of Louis Crommelin. Huguenot influence in Lisburn and the Lagan Valley was considerable and prosperous through the 17th and 18th centuries, as was Ulster-Scots Presbyterianism in the Scottish Plantation years with the establishment of meeting houses.

* Current Lisburn cathedral parishioners plan a celebration weekend on June 9-11, and an exhibition hosted by the Irish Linen Centre and Lisburn Museum will display over the summer exhibits from four centuries of worship on the cathedral site.

Cathedral clergy are also inviting former parishioners and clerics to attend the various commemorative events, which will include several special services. .

The programme for the June 9-11 weekend is: Friday – barbeque in Castle Gardens 7pm; Saturday - afternoon tea in the cathedral with actors in period costume acting out Lisburn in the 1620s; and Sunday -– celebration service conducted by the bishop of Connor, the Rev George Davison.

A series of history talks will also be held, one on Saturday June 3, tracing the cathedral and Lisburn/Lagan Valley society over the centuries, from 1623.