Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


St. Patrick's Day 2013: Five Things You Didn't Know [but probably did if you are a Die-Hard] (ABC News, March 17, 2013):
  1. St. Patrick was not Irish: His birth name was actually Maewyn Succat -- it wasn't until he was in the Church that it was changed to Patricius, or Patrick. St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was born in Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, which is in Scotland. As a teenager, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and enslaved as a shepherd for several years. He attributed his ability to persevere to his faith in God.
  2. Did St. Patrick Drive All the Snakes Out of Ireland? - Despite the popular lore, St. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland because the island did not have any to begin with. Icy water surrounds the Emerald Isle, which prevented snakes from migrating over. [... and if you're REALLY a Die-Hard, you probably won't believe this demythologization anyway!]
  3. St. Patrick's color is blue -- Green may be the national color of Ireland, but the color most associated with St. Patrick is blue. The Order of St. Patrick was established in 1783 as the senior order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Ireland. The color associated with the honor needed to differentiate it from the Order of the Garter (dark blue) and the Order of the Thistle (green). So they went with blue.
  4. Largest St. Patrick's Day Parades Are Held Outside of Ireland: The first St. Patrick's Day parade was held in the U.S. The Irish have been celebrating the feast of St. Patrick since the ninth century, but the first recorded parade anywhere was in Boston in 1737. The parade was not Catholic in nature, though, because the majority of Irish immigrants to the colonies were Protestant. Ireland did not have a parade of its own until 1931, in Dublin. Even today, 18 out of the 20 largest St. Patrick's Day parades are in the states -- New York's is the largest.
  5. The Shamrock is used to explain the Holy Trinity -- St. Patrick used a three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to pagan Irish, forever linking the shamrock with him and the Irish in the popular imagination. He would tie shamrocks to his robes, which is why the color green is worn. [But of course ANY Papist worth his salt, pertinacious or not, knows THIS!!!]
But also remember that the Irish immigration to America came because of a deliberate campaign of genocide by starvation ... [Hat tip to Tim Ferguson]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure and begorra I knew most of what you wrote including that st. Patrick was Scots. But get on with ya now; Patrick did not wear GREEN? Saints preserve us!

Donna

Mick Jagger Gathers No Mosque said...

I got six proddie scalps yesterday and I tied them to my car's antenna and I today I noticed that I no longer have to wait when I enter a roundabout

Steve "scotju" Dalton said...

What proof do you have that The Great Hunger was deliberate genocide? Are there any well documented books or articles that can back this claim up?

Pertinacious Papist said...

Here are the facts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history#Great_Irish_Famine

The arguments over whether the facts amount to "genocide" are over technicalities. The fact is that the British Protestants despised the Irish Catholics, and the Irish were obliged to export what agricultural crops they managed to produce to Britain even during those years they themselves were starving.