St. Patrick's Day HISTORY: Must-Know Facts, Trivia For Irish Holiday (PHOTOS)

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today, March 17, 2010, La Fheile Padraig (St. Patrick's Day in Irish) is being celebrated around the world.

St. Patrick's Day is a great excuse to party, whether you are Irish or not. Though the holiday began as a Catholic feast day, it's become a secular celebration of Irish culture.

Named after St. Patrick, who lived in the fifth century AD, St. Patrick's Day is a public holiday in Ireland.

It's also a great day to impress your loved ones with these fascinating St. Patrick's Day facts. Feel free to share them and vote on your favorites!

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First St. Patrick's Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston

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First St. Patrick's Day parade took place in 1737 in Boston

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Comments

[ProfessorBrooks]

03:50 PM on 03/19/2010

Here's a piece of trivia this story overlooked: all the posters talking about how Patrick burned the houses of non-converting Druids and dashing their babies brains against the rocks is true, as is the fact that Patrick basically strong-armed his way across the island, declaring duels against Druid priests and then beating the snot out of them as a way to demonstrate the superior power of Christ. He must have been a bad ass--here's the trivia: Ireland is the only Christian country in the world that was converted to Christianity without creating any martyrs (except maybe Druid martyrs). Sorry I didn't have this a few days ago for you--Happy Ireland Day.

[fin772]

01:27 PM on 03/18/2010

2nd Fact very misleading - St Patrick was born in Dumbarton, which is just north of Glasgow. In todays geography that would make him a Scotsman, not English.

[michelesda]

10:54 AM on 03/19/2010

In today's gography, yes, but perhaps not in the fifth century? The fact that the annals that mention Patrick always refer to him as "British" (i.e., "Cymric" or "Welsh,") may mean that that part of today's Scotland may have been part of Britannia at the time.

[Friendly Milk]

01:10 PM on 03/23/2010

The language is loosely called Brythonic. Welsh - as a term and language- is later and misleading even though they are clearly related.

But you are right - it was all Britannia. Perhaps St Patrick simply saw himself as ROMAN.

[Friendly Milk]

01:08 PM on 03/23/2010

No - the actually site of the fort has not been determined. Best guess by archaeologists is Birdoswald fort on Hadrian's wall.

St Patrick was very much a Briton. Modern terms do not apply.

[Craig Hilles]

09:17 AM on 03/18/2010

For trivia on Ireland, St. Patrick's day, and all kinds of stuff, try http://www.chattrivia.net

Can you win at trivia against others in Real Time? Try it! It's free.

[langej]

06:46 AM on 03/18/2010

As one whose people first went to Northern Ireland in 1543, a bit before most folks cam to America, I'd say "when you are ready to give America back to the Indians, we'll be ready to give Northern Ireland back to the catholics."

[Friendly Milk]

06:16 AM on 03/18/2010

You want to learn about your ancient Celtic ancestors? READ!

Everyone born in the island of Ireland is entitled to Irish citizenship - North or South, East or West. A lot of folks have 2 passports. People can choose to live where they want. If they want to get in touch with their roots, they just look out the window. There is nothing to prove.

Happy Guinness Corporate Sponsorship Day.

[Friendly Milk]

06:15 AM on 03/18/2010

If you have at least one Irish grandparent born in actual Ireland (where REAL Irish people come from), you qualify for Irish citizenship. If you really are Irish but live elsewhere, why not come back and help feed the Celtic Tiger and vote in elections and pay taxes and open a business and all of that stuff. It's really not that difficult to achieve. Apply!

If you don't qualify for Irish citizenship - well - too bad. Probably means you aren't that you Irish after all. Disappointing but that's just how it is.

An estimated 6 million people (10% of the population) in the UK qualify for Irish citizenship - including my own mother. And Paul McCartney. And The Gallagher brothers and Morrissey (who wrote a song about it - Irish Blood, English Heart) and many many others. This is especially in cities like Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham - as well as traditionally Irish areas of London such as Kilburn and Queens Park. So - dear people overseas - when dishing out the simplistic and historically inaccurate Anti-British sentiments, please bare in mind that many British people have a far greater and far closer connection to Ireland than most Americans. And we've probably been there at least once.

[editor]

01:45 AM on 03/18/2010

People rarely know what or why they are celebrating. Its a day where "you're supposed to wear green" and thats as deep as people want it. Same with most religious holidays from every spectrum. People celebrate celebrating.

[jessicadevyn]

11:43 PM on 03/17/2010

One of my favorite experiences as a bar tender was watching an American of Irish descent get told off by a table of Irish who were visiting the states. The Yank kept trying to claim that he was Irish while the Irish kept telling him that he's not.

And for the record, I am part Irish, (my last easily could have been McGraw), and I don't give a damn...

[widdles]

09:54 PM on 03/17/2010

Here's to Barack Hussein O'Bama!!

There No One as Irish as Barack O'Bama by the Corrigan Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HplZ_taHXLM

[missyme]

09:15 PM on 03/17/2010

I'm too young to understand why Irish people were discriminated against. I have never met an Irish person that I didn't like. They are hard-working, dependable and honest. Until proven otherwise, I will continue to hold Irish people in high regards.

[fredisfred]

11:58 AM on 03/18/2010

The movie Gangs of New York gives an insight into why some people hated Irish immigrants. They basically held the same view as people today who hate illegal immigrants from Mexico.

[flingle]

12:00 PM on 05/04/2010

Although it may be viewed as such by some, the modern issue of ILLEGAL mexican immigration is much different from the past situation of perfectly legal Irish immigration. Americans back then weren't dealing with immigrants that took away their land, living and in some cases their whole way of life.

[michelesda]

11:08 AM on 03/19/2010

The Irish were discriminated against because of coming to "English" (i.e. American) "colonies." They are likewise often discriminated against in England itself, so there was some tradition involved there. The fact is, Irish/English antipathy doesn't go back as far, historically, as we are often wont to think. The Irish hate the "Saxons," but the truth is that back in Anglo-Saxon times, the Irish and English got along just fine. It was the Normans, after they took over England and became the Anglo-Normans, who tried in vain for centuries to occupy and destroy Ireland. The main reason there was fear of continental enemies, who might like to use Ireland as a jumping-off point to invade England, in their dynastic wars of conquest. Centuries later, hordes of starving Irish from western Ireland immigrated to America. To the Americans, the newcomers were an uncouth, illiterate foreign people mainly bent on crowding their way into the job market, meaning of course that between the Irish immigrants and the American urban blue collar class, it was hate at first sight. Those were bad times. Obviously, however, the American Irish have come a long way from there.

[PSM42]

09:11 PM on 03/17/2010

The Exile Version - _very_ informative on JFK - See 'What You Should Know" - http://exiledonline.com/

"Special St. Patrick's Day "Economic Meltdown" Report: Ireland - Portrait of a Celtic Tiger as a Spotted Pond Turtle" - The Exiled - March 16, 2010 - http://exiledonline.com/special-st-patricks-day-economic-meltdown-report-portrait-of-a-celtic-tiger-as-a-kangaroo-rat/

[E3grnMaRine]

08:39 PM on 03/17/2010

as I know it, St Patrick chased the snakes out of Ireland but....the Druids symbol was the serpent. St. Patrick made it a crime to practice pagan rituals and religion. He chased the Druids from Ireland and forced Catholicism onto the Irish people.

[sayrock]

08:59 PM on 03/17/2010

Yes! That's the way I understand it too. The Church had no problem converting the masses that lived in the towns and villages, but those pesky heathens . . . (the word heathen is from the root word, heath, referring to the land, since the Druids celebrated the seasons of planting and harvesting) those heathens were harder for the Church to control . . . kind of like herding cats.

I've read that St. Patrick used no-holds-barred-ruthless tactics in his conversion process. But in the end, he did indeed drive the "snakes" from the land.

Since learning that bit of history, I personally prefer to skip this so-called holiday.

[ProfessorBrooks]

03:44 PM on 03/19/2010

Indeed, a symbolic reading of the story is preferable to a literal one--there never have been any poisonous snakes in Ireland. However, even the early English historian, The Venerable Bede, made the claim in 731 that since there are no snakes in Ireland, leaves from Ireland or even a scrap page of a book written in Ireland, burned to ash and mixed with water, was a cure for snakebite. That is pretty early in the history for the symbolic idea to have become literal, and Bede is actually a pretty scholarly monk who would have grasped these subtleties--it could be that several generations after the conversion the story was simply invented as a way of telling medieval Irish children why they should admire Patrick, in the same way that we give children books with gentle-eyed pictures of Jesus surrounded by lambs and children so they can learn to love Him.

[socalcde]

09:12 PM on 03/17/2010

"Snakes" were the symbol of witchcraft, St. Patrick was a witch-hunter. "Burn'er" in the name of Jesus Christ our lord!

[E3grnMaRine]

10:23 PM on 03/17/2010

in this instance, the serpents were dragons and the "witches" were Druids. The Druids were burned alive and their families were torn apart. All in the name of God. I wonder if Jesus would have sanctioned that behavior in his name. Funny how it's the priests who go for little boys!

[gertrudsdotter]

08:12 PM on 03/17/2010

Sure, the Americans know how to tie one on for St. Patrick's Day, vomiting all over their own shoes. The true Irish hold their liquor better and don't have the same need for dressing in green and holding parades of law enforcement brigades.

[olney215]

10:50 PM on 03/17/2010

What is true irish?

[jessicadevyn]

11:41 PM on 03/17/2010

The ones in Ireland. I once remember a full blooded Irish American trying to talk to a group of Irish who were visiting in a bar. He was trying to say that he was Irish, while the Irish kept saying "You are not Irish, you are American". Which is true.

[mathme]

08:04 PM on 03/17/2010

A Romanized Briton would have been Celtic, not English. Besides, England wasn't "England" until the Angles, Saxons, Juttes, etc. invaded (Angleland...). So the distinction between Britons and Irish isn't the same as the distinction between English and Irish.

Just sayin' :)

[jessicadevyn]

11:41 PM on 03/17/2010

True.

[fin772]

01:42 PM on 03/18/2010

I just posted something at the top of the page that u might find interesting. Records say that St Patrick was born near Dumbarton (which is just north of Glasgow). Using today's geography that would make him a Scotsman, not English. Around 400 AD, the map of the British Isles was all over the place. Celts had taken over and the Romans were fighting them. From what I gather, St Partick was born into a Roman family, which would expalin why he was a Christain.

[ECT]

07:57 PM on 03/17/2010

I love being of Irish descent 365 days of the year.

[widdles]

10:30 PM on 03/17/2010

Me too!! Just a wee bit of Irish and a wee bit of Scottish. A wee bit of Italian, English and more German that I ever wanted to be.

I relate more to the Celtic in me!!