St. Patrick's Debate

First off, his name wasn't even Patrick, it was Maewyn Succat. He wasn't even born in Ireland, no one is certain where in Greater Brittan he was born, but it definately wasn't Ireland.

He was kidnapped and taken to Ireland when he was 16, where he spent the next 6 years as a slave. He worked as a sheppard there, then one night he supposedly dreamed of how to escape.

After his escape he credited his time in slavery in Ireland as what inspired him to lead a life as a missionary. After studying St. Germain, bishop of Auxerre, for twelve years, he eventually went back to Ireland, where he spent 30 years converting pagans, baptizing people and setting up monasteries,

No one is really sure where this myth originated either, but there weren't ever any real snakes in Ireland for St. Patrick to drive away. The reality is most likely that the snakes were symbolic of the pagans.

The Church and St. Patrick believed that the Irish Pagans were heathens and evil. Thus by converting the pagens to Christianity he was credited with driving the "snakes" a symbol for "pagans" out of Ireland.

The reality is that the pagans never actually left Ireland, and even many that were successfully converted to Christianity, still practiced many of their pagan rites, especially herb and rootwork for medicinal purposes.

My own Great-Grandma Murphy who came to America from Ireland in the late 1800's, went to Catholic mass every Sunday, but was considered an Irish witch by her friends, family and neighbors, because she used herbal remedies and still practiced many of the old Celtic pagan rituals that had been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we've all heard the one about how supposedly St. Patrick used a shamrock to explaine the "holy trinity" of Christianity to the pagans in his efforts to convert them.

The reality is that the shamrock was a sacred symbol in Ireland long before St. Patrick was a gleem in his father's eye.

Ancient Druids and Irish Celts long revered the shamrock for it's three leaves because the number "3" has long been considered mystical and sacred. The three leaves that are shaped like hearts have been associated with the Triple Goddess of Celtic mythology, also known as the "Three Morgans". The Triple Goddess represented the Triple Mothers, the hearts of the ancient Celtic tribes.

The Celtic traditions all revolve around the Irish trinity, which is much older than the Christian trinity. According to these traditions all things in life revolve around the number three....

Birth...Life...Death

Girl...Woman...Crone

Past...Present...Future

Earth...Water...Air

Hope...Faith...Charity

These are the things that the Irish Shamrock really symbolizes.

I love fairies, and it's one of my favorite things about being Irish is our connection to fairies and all the other wee folk...There are fairy myths and legends throughout Irish history...and even though the Leprechaun became the symbol for St. Patrick's Day...you can't think Irish without thinking of the wonderful world of fairies!






Buy at AllPosters.com

Even though leprechauns are usually seen as friendly little drunk folk guarding pots of gold. In Irish history, they are actually evil little mean spirited folk, that are kind of feared.






Buy at AllPosters.com

We've Americanized them as being cute and having "lucky charms" but I've always thought they were kind of creepy.