I won’t be around much this afternoon, as I will be working on Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day parade! So here are a few facts about St Patrick and the parades still held all over the world on March 17th.
- St Patrick is generally considered to have been a Roman Briton, though his exact origin is unknown except that it must have been on the west coast, with traditions claiming origins from Carlisle in Cumbria all the way to Glamorgan in south Wales. He was captured and enslaved in Ireland, but escaped after six years as a shepherd. After being ordained as a priest, he returned to pagan Ireland as a missionary. He is honoured on the traditional date of his death, March 17th, and (again according to ancient tradition) is buried with Ireland’s two other great patron saints, Brigid and Colmcille, in a single grave outside the cathedral in Downpatrick, County Down. He is also the patron saint of Nigeria and the island of Montserrat.
- Along the way he had many adventures, more of which you can read about here. The most famous internationally, no doubt, is the banishment of the snakes of Ireland. What’s less well-known, though, is that they were banished to a definite location – Dún Briste, off the coast of County Mayo. Patrick drove the snakes across the sea arch there, then with a great whack of his crozier collapsed the arch and left the snakes on the newly-formed sea stack!
- St Patrick’s Day parades are an American invention – in fact the first recorded parade was held in what’s now St Augustine, Florida in 1601, organised by the local priest Padre Ricardo Artur, born Richard Arthur in Limerick. New York has been holding St Patrick’s Day parades since 1762.
- The first official Irish parade, meanwhile, didn’t happen till 1903, the same year in which March 17th was declared a public holiday for the first time. Dublin didn’t have a parade until 1931, and only became the city’s biggest annual tourist event in the late ’90s. And despite its reputation as a drinking holiday, from 1927 to 1961 the pubs of Dublin were actually forced to close for the day.
- One of the most beloved features of the Dublin parade was Paddy “Paddy Drac” Finlay. Starting in 1968, Paddy walked the parade dressed as Dracula every year until he hung up his cape and fangs in 2018. He passed away in 2019, finally resting in what was, by his own count, his twenty-fifth coffin.
And finally, a note from Maria “Twisted Doodles” Boyle (whose work can be found here)
Have a great day!