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The History and Traditions Of ST. PATRICK’S DAY MEDIA FILE The history and traditions of 12 page, full colour IrelandIreland && printed brochure available from Tourism Ireland St.PatrickSt.Patrick on request March Í ST.PATRICK - THE FACTS AND THE LEGENDS Í HIS ASSOCIATION WITH THE SHAMROCK Í WHAT HAPPENED ON MARCH 17TH? Í CELEBRATIONS AND PARADES 17thOOD FOR THOUGHT Í F Í OTHER FESTIVALS All material in this publication may be freely reprinted For information on holidays in Ireland, how to get there, where to stay, festivals, events and so on, check out the web site on: www.tourismireland.com Tourism Ireland Limited Tel: 020 7518 0800 Nations House Fax: 020 7493 9065 103 Wigmore Street Email: [email protected] London www.tourismireland.com W1U 1QS Visitor enquiries: 0800 039 7000 Page 2 of 10 The history and traditions of Ireland & St.Patrick All material in this publication may be freely reprinted Who was St. Patrick? The man largely responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity over nearly 30 years, up to the year 462 AD or HEN ST. PATRICK SET FOOT IN IRELAND in thereabouts - even if the the 5th century AD, he faced an uncertain work had been started future in a little-known country. by other missionaries Warring Celts were scattered in tribal groups across before him. the island, ruled with iron might by five provincial kings. Eerie dolmen monuments and ancient ruins dominated Was he real then? the landscape. Even the Roman conquerors of Britain Most definitely, even if had not ventured this far - apart perhaps from the odd the facts about his life trader or adventurer. have been freely mingled over the centuries with legend and make-believe. A written document, When St. Patrick his Confession, is tangible evidence set foot in Ireland… of his authenticity. Against this background, St. Patrick’s phenomenal Where did success as a Christian missionary seems all the he come from? more incredible. By the end of the 5th century, An important thing Ireland had become a Christian nation. to remember about Perhaps Patrick’s elevation into sainthood was Patrick is that he was not therefore inevitable. But his prominence in the Irish. In fact he was what traditions and legends of the country says something nowadays at least would of the reverence, awe and affection in which he has be called British, even been held in the intervening centuries and which are if he was of Roman rekindled in the Irish every St. Patrick’s Day. parentage. The Feast of St. Patrick is now celebrated in nearly every country throughout the world where Where in Britain Irish descendants or influence have continued to did he originate? reinforce its popularity. To be honest, nobody Among the countries with centuries-old traditions knows. Patrick himself of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day are obviously the United refers in his writings States, Canada and Australia, but less obviously France to his father owning a and Argentina as well and even the Caribbean island of holding near the village Montserrat. Nowadays it is also celebrated in countries of Bannavem Taberniae, such as Russia and Japan. but there is no such In Britain - Ireland’s closest neighbour and its name on any map of biggest visitor market - the Trojan efforts of a large Roman Britain. The date population of Irish descent have established March of his birth is commonly 17 as a day of celebration for British and Irish alike. given as circa 389 AD. With this in mind, Tourism Ireland has designed this publication to provide a backdrop to the celebration - a factfile on St. Patrick and the traditions and celebrations associated with St. Patrick’s Day and a bit more besides. Page 3 of 10 The history and traditions of Ireland & St.Patrick All material in this publication may be freely reprinted How did he first In 432 AD, now a bishop arrive in Ireland? named Patricius, he was As a sixteen-year-old and sent by Pope Celestine to named Succat, he was Ireland to take up where captured in a raid by the a previous missionary Irish King Niall of the Nine bishop, Palladius, had Hostages and sold into left off. slavery, working as a St. Patrick’s statue, Croagh Patrick, Co Mayo herdsman for six years How successful was he? on Slemish Mountain When did he die? Where is in County Antrim. Phenomenally so, if There is some doubt he buried? Irish pirate chieftains some are to be believed. about this too. Some A tombstone in the were given to raiding By some accounts, he accounts say Patrick lived grounds of Down the western coast of failed to convert King to be all of 120 years of Cathedral in Downpatrick Britain in those days. Laoghaire (pronounced age! Most, however, point is supposed to mark his Hence, it has traditionally Leary), High King of to him dying on March 17 grave. But there are been assumed that Patrick Ireland and, by an odd about the year 461 AD at serious doubts. Patrick is originally came from coincidence, the son of Saul, County Down, at a almost certainly buried South Wales, probably Niall of the Nine Hostages, church built on land given somewhere in County along the Severn Valley, who had originally to him by Dichu, a local Down but it is thought that which could also mean captured him. Other chieftain, who was one the Norman nobleman that he came from accounts say that he of his converts. John De Courcy may not Gloucestershire. Modern succeeded. Crucially, The Annals of Ulster so easily have found the scholars, however, are however, he won the also mention him dying remains almost seven more inclined to think King’s permission to in 491 AD. This has given centuries after Patrick’s of Strathclyde as being continue his work rise to the so-called death. De Courcy claimed more likely. in Ireland. “two Patricks” theory, to have found them and Some historians, providing food for endless brought them to the seat however, are inclined to How was that speculation by scholars. of his stronghold. The believe that the thrust of slave turned into By the end of the 7th claim was politically his efforts was confined to a missionary? century a single Patrick convenient to say the least After six years, Patrick Ulster, concentrating on had already become a in 12th century Ireland managed to escape Downpatrick, by then the legendary figure. as the Normans bade to from his master, Milchu - seat of the Ulster Kings. consolidate their power. legend has it that he was Whatever the truth of told of a waiting ship in that, it appears that over a dream - and made his two to three decades way back to Britain. from 432 AD, either he According to himself, or his disciples travelled he had another dream of to just about every corner monumental importance. of Ireland. In it The Voice of Ireland And his legacy lived on. called to him to return By the end of the 5th to that country as a century, Ireland was a Christian missionary. Christian nation. As a result, he went to France, some say, studied to become a Christian and a missionary at the monastery of Auxerre, near Paris, and later was St. Patrick’s gravestone, ordained a priest. Downpatrick, Co Down The Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary Page 4 of 10 The history and traditions of Ireland & St.Patrick All material in this publication may be freely reprinted Legends “Shamrock” Separating fact from fiction in the story of The shamrock is popularly St. Patrick can sometimes be tricky. But the identified with Ireland. legends more often than not speak for themselves. That custom owes its origins to St. Patrick. St. Patrick is supposed to have driven the snakes from Ireland. Certainly, there are no snakes in Ireland. But What is shamrock? neither are there any in New Zealand and there is It is supposed only to grow in Ireland and hence to be no record of St. Patrick ever having visited there! unique. Suggestions to the contrary have been known Moreover the Graeco-Roman writer Solinus to provoke outrage. In the early days of Irish television, recorded the fact that Ireland was snake-free a good all hell broke loose when a man purporting to be a two hundred years before St. Patrick was born! Rhodesian farmer claimed in an interview that he The story that Patrick banished the snakes seems had acres of it growing on his land and that he was quite simply to have been invented in the12th century actually exporting it to Ireland! In their defence, the by a Northumbrian monk named Jocelyn, whom the programme’s producers said that obviously viewers wife of the Norman John De Courcy brought to her had failed to spot the presenter’s wink into the husband’s court in Downpatrick. camera at the end. One legend has it that Patrick, when he escaped from The reality? his youthful slavery in Ireland went straight to France. The reality is that shamrock is a form of clover - Deciding to visit his uncle in Tours, he had to cross the Trifolium repens, Trifolium pratense or more likely River Loire. He had no obvious means of doing so, but Trifolium dubium, to give its botanical pedigree - he found that his cape made an admirable raft. On and only looks different from what one might expect reaching the other side, he hung his cape out to dry because it is picked so early in spring. upon a hawthorn bush. Despite it being the middle It is not unique to Ireland.
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