Sunday morning service at St Peter's Church of Ireland in Drogheda is drawing to a close. The various sets of children have returned from Sunday school and are running up the aisle to join their parents for the Communion. Sunlight coming through the stained glass windows has become brighter during the service.
It is a beautiful church, elegant and understated, more welcoming than austere. The organ swells and the congregation sings the final hymn. The rector gives the blessing and prepares to greet his parishioners.
Outside the rain has stopped, the wind has abated and everyone is walking over to the new parish hall for coffee. It is a typical Sunday. Next Wednesday evening, it will be busier. The world première of The Deer's Cry, a new work - based on St Patrick's Breastplate - by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, performed by the state choir "Latvija", will take place here. Last September, another of the finest choirs in the world, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, also enjoyed performing in the church's ideal acoustic.
Wednesday's concert is sold out. Pärt is making history, yet he is also coming to share in the history of this beautiful parish church, one that has survived time, Cromwell and more recently, an arson attack. St Peter's is known to have been first established on this site, on the north side of the Boyne, before 1186 by the Norman knight Hugh de Lacy. De Lacy then gave it to the Augustinian canons in Monmouthshire, Wales. The medieval church was one of the more prominent parish churches in Ireland, fitting for a town as important as Drogheda, then one of the major walled towns in Europe.
That earlier church was also, significantly larger and many primates of All Ireland are buried in the intriguing churchyard with its array of monuments. At one time there were at least seven chapels in the church. According to Rev Michael Graham, the present rector, who has written a short history, St Peter's Church of Ireland, "there are a number of references to building work at the church. A document of c.1290 recounts how the light in the chancel was obscured by a chapel on the south wall and, in order to allow more light in, a chapel was opened on the north side by Master William of Dublin, mason. The number of notices in the fragmentary register of the mayors of Drogheda would suggest that sizeable alterations were carried out in the early part of the 16th century."
Also recorded are the events of January 27th, 1548, the date the church tower, described in the register as "the highest in the world" was blown down in a storm. It is difficult for anyone sitting in this most peaceful of churches to imagine the violence that has taken place here. When the fallen tower was replaced, the new structure was of wood, not stone. And it was within this wooden steeple that a number of citizens hid, just over a century later in 1649, before being burnt alive by order of Cromwell. Those who escaped the flames fared no better, and were killed by waiting soldiers.
By then Drogheda, a royalist stronghold supporting Charles I, having been handed over to the parliamentarians, had been besieged. Initially Cromwell - who was as hostile to the Church of Ireland as to the Church of Rome - had intended to destroy the church, but settled instead for the massacre. His forces also plundered the building and defaced the monuments.
After leaving possibly 5,000 dead, Cromwell then set about placing, or rewarding, his supporters. St Peter's was a spoil of war and the church was used by the Puritans, as may be seen in the marriage register. By the time of the Restoration, the church was well into decline. A painting by De Hagen from around 1710 shows St Peter's in ruins. "In the Year one thousand seven hundred and forty eight" states the Vestry Minute Book, "The Old Parish Church of St Peter's Drogheda being in ruinous condition and in danger of falling was ordered to be pulled down which was done accordingly and a New Church begun to be Built."
The new church was completed in 1752, with the help of subscriptions and the sale of seats in the pews. Designed by Hugh Darley and constructed by workmen trained in Italy, it is a handsome Palladian building with a refined grandeur.
The late Baroque plasterwork in the chancel with its pair of large birds is dramatic, if decidedly secular.
The main building and tower are classical but topped by a needle-like spire, designed in the 1780s by Armagh-born Francis Johnston (1760-1829) to replace the stone steeple of the 1750s.
Inside the tower is a set of five bells, cast in 1791 in Gloucester (except for the tenor bell, dated 1869). Extensive remodelling was carried out on the interior in the mid 19th century.
In May 1999 St Peter's again experienced violence, this time in the form of an arson attack. The select vestry decided not only to repair the damage but to begin a full restoration. This was completed with the support of the entire Drogheda community in September 2002. "To show our gratitude we decided to open up the church for everyone to enjoy," says Rev Graham. The International Music Series is now in its fifth year; the RTÉ Vanburgh Quartet performed in the church two weeks ago; the Irish Baroque Orchestra brought the music of Vivaldi, Corelli and Muffat here last year.
St Peter's Church of Ireland, from the magnificent medieval carved baptismal font to the Snetzler organ - built for the church in 1771, shipwrecked en route to Ireland, and salvaged - is a working church, continuing to serve its community as it has done for more than 800 years.