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The cathedral is a structure in the Anglo-Norman style of oddly-sized-and-shaped stone; in this case of the local black limestone for which Kilkenny gets its nickname "the Marble City."
St. Canice's was established in 1202 by the invading Anglo-Normans on the site of an earlier monastic settlement. They finished construction in or around 1285.
The first major renovation in 1332 quickly followed a flawed attempt to repair the roof. William Outlawe, the son of notorious "witch" Alice Kyteler, was implicated as an accessory to the dark arts. His penance would be to re-roof the cathedral. He used too much lead and brought the whole central tower down. Nobody really knows if this was an accident or an act of sabotage. (Or evil magic, or even true at all....)
Another renovation was imperative after Oliver Cromwell raided in 1650. He busted up the cathedral and used it to stable his horses. That was after he'd disintered all the bodies and put them elsewhere.
Inside the cathedral, there are memorials of many sorts from different dates placed about the walls and floors, and there are tombs below-level. There are five above-floor tombs of particular beauty, topped with lifesize black limestone carvings of the deceased. On the side approached, each of these is polished along the arm and side of the face from people touching them. I touched them, in March of 2003.
I sat for a while.
As I was leaving, I asked the attendant about the tombs. The bodies were too decomposed and defiled for reinterment after the defeat of Cromwell. The attendant didn't say what became of them, but they are no longer here. There are, however, bodies still interred. Under the dome at the center of the cross-shape building there are two black limestone squares labeled as vaults. In the one labeled "Cox vault," he said, some bodies remain. Nobody knows how many. He didn't say why nobody knows. He didn't say why Cromwell didn't remove them, either, but they must have been buried later.
In any case, the information is forthcoming.
It is illegal to open a tomb without a special government decree except to bury somebody else. And there's one left. He is alive, and residing in the United States. He will return to Ireland and be interred at St. Canice's in the Cox tomb when he dies. Then, we will know how many others are in there.