Did you miss me? I've been absent from contributing to the blog due mostly to work load, but partly because I have been a bit of a lazy sod. However, now I have some time, and by sheer coincidence I get to write about St. Patrick's Day here in England.Most of you know that my last name is Walsh, and through thorough investigation, by Angela of course, she found that my father's family emigrated to the Manchester area from County Mayo. So, today I am to celebrate my Irish heritage, but aside from the green beer and shamrocks, what do we really know about the guy who we celebrate on this day?
Well, it seems St. Patrick actually was from England, Scotland or Wales and came to Ireland in the late 4th century as a slave of Irish pirates. Imagine that; Irish pirates! He landed in County Antrim in Northern Ireland where he herded sheep and took care of pigs for his captors. His real name was Maewyn Succat, and he eventually escaped back to England and became a priest. As legend would have it, he returned to Ireland to convert his old captors. He spent the next 30 years building churches and schools, and eventually he succeeded the first Bishop of Ireland. His death was on the 17th of March in the year 461. Hang on.....what about the snakes? I thought he drove the snakes from Ireland?
As it turns out, that is only a myth. The reality is that the last ice age killed off the snake population and the Irish Sea formed a barrier that restricted snakes from getting back to the island. There are other myths too about St. Pat. He did not start the Christian movement in Ireland; there were other Christians in Ireland long before him. He did not defeat the pagan druids; that was a story made up by his followers a couple centuries after he died. And, a few centuries after that, they made up the story that the shamrock was St. Patrick's way of explaining the holy trinity. Oh the lies! But there are some truths. For example, the first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in the United States in 1761 by Irish soldiers of the British Army, and the day is arguably when the most pints of Guinness are consumed (but in total, over 1.8 billion pints of Guiness are consumed each year). And finally, some of the world's greatest landmarks are turned green (use of tricky lighting) to mark the day. They include the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt, Christ the Redeemer in Rio, the Sydney Opera House, and the world's tallest building in Dubai.
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