On May the 22nd, 1332, the atmosphere in Kilkenny was thick with an eerie stillness.

The sense of impending disaster had taken shape in the form of faint, ominous, creeks and groans emanating from St. Canes's Cathedral.

Already, a century old, the cathedral occupied a dominant position on high ground overlooking the

medieval town, but as that fateful day wore on the sense of an impending disaster

intensified as the creaking from the very walls of the cathedral grew in intensity,

becoming more and more insistent. While the religious in the town

below crossed themselves in silent prayer and glanced upwards towards heaven, the tension

was finally broken by a deafening roar as the bell tower gave way.

This was followed by an avalanche of splintered roof beams and stone. The massive bronze bells which had been housed in the bell tower

and had once regimented life in Kilkenny now rang out in total chaos tearing down through the roof of the choir and obliterating the altar

20 meters below. Shocked, one eyewitness would describe what happened as a painful and horrible site.

In the following days the townspeople of Kukenny set about the task of

thawling through the ruins, salvaging what could be reused. Dramatic as the collapse had been, the people

at Kalkenny had been in this situation before. Only three years earlier, the spire of

St John's priory in the town had also collapsed.

Indeed such disasters were not unique to Kilkenny or even Ireland.

Medieval cathedrals may have been the tallest buildings in the world in the 14th century,

but they had pushed the technology of their day to the brink and all too often beyond.

Major collapses at some of the most well-known cathedrals in the world were far too common for comfort.

Norwich, Gloucester, Winchester and Lincoln had all suffered their own spectacular collapses.

However, what happened in Kilkenny in 1332

was, in its own way, somewhat different.

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