The story of why Irish wear green if closely linked to the legend of St Patrick. Surprise surprise.....
As I said in an earlier posting, Patrick was actually Welsh. He was born in the second half of the fifth century and was captured by Irish raisers who crossed the Irish sea to pillage what they could. In his late teens, Patrick was enslaved and sent to work on the land as a herdsman, on Mount Slemish, just outside Ballymena in County Antrim, remaining a captive for six years. After six years he heard a voice telling him that he would soon go home, and then that his ship was ready. Fleeing his master, he travelled to a port, two hundred miles away he says, where he gained passage back to Wales, which was a journey of epic proportions back then. I have made the journey many times and my brother attended university in North Wales and often complained about the ferry crossings.
St. Patrick is buried at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick in County Down, alongside St. Brigid and St. Columba. Downpatrick is now a small market town with a St Patrick’s visitors centre. Its only other claim to fame is that it is the home of rock band Ash, who I would recommend if you haven’t heard them. However, Tim, Mark and Rick now live in Manhattan and are enjoying the finer things in life, having moved on from the Green Dragon Chinese restaurant in High Street and drinking cider in the surrounding fields.
Legend has it that Patrick explained the concept of the father, the son and the Holy Ghost were one and the same God, using a shamrock, which is a green three leafed clover. The shamrock is considered to be the symbol of Ireland and is on the Irish rugby and soccer shirts as a national symbol.
St Patrick’s Day is celebrated on 17th March, which is said to be the date of Patrick’s death. For most of Christianity's first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of people considered to be very holy people, the local church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonised by a Pope.
If you have ever been to Ireland or seen anything filmed there, you will know it invariably rains. I suppose this is one of the reasons I left. Certainly there were a number of factors affecting my decision, but I was surprised just how much of a bearing climate has on peoples’ mood. The stereotype of Irish people are happy cheery bunch, always up for “the craic” is inextricably linked to alcohol. When I went back to visit with my young daughter I was shocked to see how much of an impact alcohol has on life there. I suppose it is a northern European phenomenon, where it gets dark early and the weather is cold. The only thing to do is stay indoors. Australia has a fantastic climate which lends itself well to the outdoors lifestyle my family now enjoy. Ireland ’s cooler climate and heavy rainfall lends itself well to growing vegetation. If you have ever flown over Ireland, it is a beautifully green country – hence the Emerald Isle monicker and probably the reason Ireland is linked to the colour green, which has the Chicago synthetic dye companies rubbing their hands every March.
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