Logue was appointed to the College of Cardinals by Pope Leo XIII in 1893, becoming the first Archbishop of Armagh appointed to the college in its history. When he arrived at the completed cathedral at Armagh, Logue was far from impressed. He complained of the "weak and beggerly elements" of interior decoration and stated that "visitors who had approached the Cathedral filled with admiration for the beauty of its exterior, were…disagreeably surprised, not to say disedified, at the comparative shabbiness and poverty of the interior". On 20 August 1899, Cardinal Logue issued a Pastoral Letter entitled "The National Cathedral" exhorting the people of Ireland and its diaspora to supply sufficient funds to beautify the interior of the cathedral. A fundraising bazaar was organised in 1900 and the firm of the architect William Hague of Dublin (who had inherited much of McCarthy's practice on the latter's death) was appointed to make plans. The bazaar raised over £30,000 and Logue travelled to Italy with his architect to visit marble quarries and artisan workshops, choosing materials and craftspeople to carry out Hague's plans. Hague died soon after designing the first of his additions: a marble rood screen, wide and tall. His replacement was George Coppinger Ashlin, former partner of Pugin's son. Upon appointment, Ashlin almost immediately identified a major structural problem with the roofs on McCarthy's aisles and a new groined roof of Bath Stone was constructed. This, combined with repairs on the foundations of the towers which had not been designed to take the weight of McCarthy's spires, used much of the funds raised by the Bazaar. Nevertheless, Cardinal Logue pressed ahead with lavish plans. Ashlin designed a High Altar carved from Carrara marble, Lapis Lazuli and Jasper to sit before Hague's rood screen and the Italian sculptor, Cesare Aureli was commissioned to carve a frontal in alto relievo of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. Ashlin closed the Crossing by constructing two side screens of statuary marble, wide, across the north and south transepts and statuary marble communion railings inlaid with Breccia di S Votaleat the Nave. The Cathedra throne projected in three divisions at the second bay on the North side with canopied niches, having crockets and pinnacles and surmounted by a marble spire. The centre of the throne was carved with the arms of the cardinal in statuary marble. The entire crossing was paved with inlaid marbles, designed in squares