THE CONFESSION BOX PUB [MARLBOROUGH STREET]

This is located on Malborough Street near the Pro-Cathedral.

The city of Dublin possesses two cathedrals, but unusually, both belong to one church, the minority Church of Ireland, which had been the Established Church in Ireland until 1871. In contrast, the majority religion in Ireland, Roman Catholicism, has no cathedral in the Republic of Ireland's capital city and has not had one since the Protestant Reformation. As the official church, the Church of Ireland took control of most church property, including the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (generally known as Christchurch) and St Patrick's Cathedral.

These two churches had long shared the role of cathedral of Dublin, controversially at first, then under an agreement of 1300, Pacis Compositio, which gave Christchurch formal precedence, including the right to enthrone the Archbishop and to hold his cross, mitre and ring after death, but with deceased Archbishops of Dublin to be buried alternately in each of the two cathedrals, unless they personally willed otherwise, and the two cathedrals to act as one, and "shared equally in their freedoms".

Even though Christchurch has been in possession of the Church of Ireland for nearly five hundred years, it is still viewed by the Roman Catholic Church as the primary official Dublin cathedral, since it was so designated by the pope at the request of the then Archbishop of Dublin, St Laurence O'Toole in the 12th century. Unless the pope either formally revokes Christchurch's designation or grants cathedral status to another church, the main Roman Catholic church in Dublin will continue to be designated a "pro-cathedral" (meaning in effect acting cathedral), a title officially given to St Mary's Church in 1886, though it used that title unofficially since the 1820s.