Did Saint Patrick really drive the snakes out of Ireland?
107946
There never were any snakes in Ireland and there are still no snakes that are native to Ireland to this very day!  The snakes that the legend refers to are the people of the celtic religions.\n\nKeep in mind dear that snakes have their purpose.  If it were not for snakes, a lot of nasty rodent pests that carry diseases could wipe out human populations.\n\nHere is a great article from the Smithsonian National Zoo Magazine:\n\nWhy Ireland Has No Snakes\nby Jill Locantore \n\nLegend has it that St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. Sometime back in the fifth century he stood on a hill, the story goes, and used a staff to herd the slithering creatures into the sea, banishing them for eternity. It's true, aside from zoos and pets, there are no snakes on the emerald isle. In fact, there never were any snakes in Ireland. This state of affairs probably has more to do with the vagaries of geography than any neat tricks performed by St. Patty. \n\nSnakes first evolved from their lizard forebears about 100 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, about the same time that Tyrannosaurus rex first appeared. Early snakes were small and wormy, resembling modern blindsnakes (suborder Scolecophidia). Ancient snake fossils are found only on southern continents, suggesting that snakes first radiated from Gondwanaland—a former supercontinent comprised of modern-day Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia. Migrating to Ireland wasn't an option at this time, as the area was completely underwater. The chalky sediments that would eventually become the 700-foot Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's west coast were being laid down at the bottom of the sea. \n\nDuring the Cenozoic era, beginning 65 million years ago, the world's climate gradually began to dry out, and vast tracts of grasslands and other open habitats came to dominate much of the northern hemisphere. Large dinosaurs went extinct, opening the door to new groups of animals. By the Eocene epoch, 50 to 35 million years ago, the predecessors of boas and pythons (called the basal Macrostomatans) were widespread throughout the northern hemisphere. Explosive radiation of snakes in the suborder Colubroidae, including vipers and cobras, occurred during the Miocene epoch, 25 million years ago. Now snakes are found in deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains, and even oceans virtually everywhere around the world. Everywhere except Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica, that is. \n\nOne thing these few snake-less parts of the world have in common is that they are surrounded by water. New Zealand, for instance, split off from Australia and Asia before snakes ever evolved. So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home. As the world's oceans have risen and fallen over the millennia, land bridges have come and gone between Ireland, other parts of Great Britain, and the European mainland, allowing animals and early humans to cross. However, any snake that may have slithered it's way to Ireland would have turned into a popsicle when the ice ages hit. \n\nThe most recent ice age began about three million years ago and continues into the present. Between warm periods like the current climate, glaciers have advanced and retreated more than 20 times, often completely blanketing Ireland with ice. Snakes, being cold-blooded animals, simply aren't able to survive in areas where the ground is frozen year round. Ireland thawed out for the last time only 15,000 years ago. Since then, 12 miles of icy-cold water in the Northern Channel have separated Ireland from neighboring Scotland, which does harbor a few species of snakes. There are no snakes in Ireland for the simple reason that they can't get there. \n\nSnakes and Myths\nSo where did the myth of St. Patrick and the snakes come from? Most scholars agree that snakes symbolize paganism, which St. Patrick is also credited for banishing from I
693194
Supposedly the Egyptian "magicians" knew of a pressure point on cobras where if they gripped them correctly the snake would become paralyzed and stiff so they could carry them around like staffs.\n\nMoses and Aaron on the other hand had supernatural power from God Almighty so that's why Aaron's wooden staff was able to consume the other snake staffs.
891011
The whole story of Mary Magdelaine and the Priory of Sion was created in 1956 by a Frenchmen named Pierre Plantard and some friends. It was actually constructed to be a piece of "Theater of the Absurd." The perpetrators simply wanted to see how far they could take it.\n\nIt has been well researched by French journalists and found to be a hoax. It would have died like all hoaxes until two British writers found out about it and resurrected it. Their book inspired Dan Brown, and the rest, as they say, is history.\n\nThough serious historians have proven time and again that this is fictional nonsense, some people refuse to believe, just as some people refuse to believe that people actually landed on the moon.\n\nIt's total rubbish. Please dismiss it.
246471
Saint Patrick went into Ireland spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and some people started making big tales/miracles about St. Patrick. Like the most well known of him sending out the snakes out of Ireland. So he became a hero and they honor him using his name. =>
57560
I don't know what those sailors had smoked or drunk, but the story goes that the Manatee or Dugong were the real world phenomenon behind the mermaid legend.\n\nMaybe that's too late - Celtic myth has Selkies, shapechanging seals, and while they claim that St Brennan crossed the western sea long before Columbus did, I haven't heard about any mermaids in his travels.\n\nYou could study anthropologists' reports on merman myths, and treat them as sightings. Maybe there could be a useful map made of that...
210999
Your assertion that he was murdered may not be the case although it's possible.........  \nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelagius\nMany of the early Saints were not necessarily saintly and several popes had blood on their hand during the inquistion.  Power uaually corrupts, it doesn't matter the religion. Note the executions in Iran under Islam after the fall of the Shaw.
174271
One thing these few snake-less parts of the world have in common is that they are surrounded by water.  Snakes are found in deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains, and even oceans virtually everywhere around the world. Everywhere except Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica, that is. \nThere are no snakes in Ireland for the simple reason that they can't get there.
168716
There are snakes in Hawaii. I don't know who told you that there aren't but they have misinformed you. See the link below.\n\nThere are no LAND snakes in Hawaii for the simple reason that the Hawaain islands have never been close to any land where snakes live. No land snake could swim to Hawaii because it was too far away.\n\nThe idea that it somehow has to do with Hawaii resulting from lava flows or a lack of sea level changes is way off base. \n\nNew Zealand is not a volcanic island, and is instead a microcontinent with its own plate. But New Zealand has no snakes either. \n\nIreland is also not a volcanic island and Ireland was formed by sea level changes, but Ireland has no snakes either.
829239
I think so. You should read Patrick Buchanan's new book. It's not good news.
277301
"The person who was to become St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Wales about AD 385. His given name was Maewyn and he was the son of Calpurnius, a Roman-British army officer."\nFrom the site below
263673
Grenada, St. Patrick, & the Irish\nBy Margaret Hughes.\n\nSpanning slavery, war, education and the Catholic Church, Grenada has an intimate association with Ireland. One outstanding sign of this is the parish of St. Patricks which carries the name of Ireland's patron saint.\n\nPatrick was captured and brought to Ireland as a slave from Europe about the year 400AD. He worked as a shepherd for some years, escaped and made it back home across the sea. Later, when he became a Bishop, he asked Rome to send him to Ireland to bring Christianity. He arrived in 432 AD. There was a Celtic festival at the beginning of Spring each year when the High King was the first to light the dawn fire on the hill of Tara, seat of the Kings. This established the power of the King. Patrick was a remarkable stratagist and, in order to get an audience with the King, decided he would light the first fire on the hill facing Tara. The ruse worked and the King sent for this audacious man. Patrick brought the Good News of Christianity and the King and his Kingdom were converted without bloodshed\n\nPatrick's writings exist to this day and his most famous hymn is called the Breastplate of St. Patrick. The Seat of the Catholic Church is still at Armagh where Patrick established it. He is portrayed in bishops outfit carrying a staff and a Shamrock. The shamrock, which is the national emblem, is a native three leaf plant which Patrick is alleged to have picked and displayed to demonstrate the Trinity---three in one.!\n\nIn the 1600's, the dispossessed of Ireland presented a problem.Their lands had been taken away by the English. They were rebellious. One solution was found in carting them off to the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. So began the process of forced emigration. In the Treaty of Galway document, 1660, it is amazing to learn that one quarter of the city was sent to Barbados."Barbadoing" was a dreaded word. It meant than any hapless person found wandering about would be picked up and sent to the WestIndies. These captives were found to be useless at cutting cane under tropic sun due to the tenderness of their skin---and so became known as "Red Legs"\n\nIn 1779 the next significant group of Irish arrived in Grenada. It was the military contingent called the Irish Brigade under Count Arthur Dillon and his brother Edward. The Irish Brigade known as "The Wild Geese" were the leaders and their followers who left Ireland after the Plantation of 1601 to form armies in Europe to fight the English. These fearless soldiers arrived in Grenada with D'Estaing as part of the French Army. After a brillant manoevre by the invaders, the English surrendered without a fight and the town of St. Georges was handed to the Irish troops for looting. It is said that the Irish behaved in an exemplary fashion due to their own personal experience at home. It is interesting to note that families of D'Estaing and Dillon are well and alive today---direct descendants became Prime Ministers of France and Ireland respectively in the 1970s\n\nThe number of Irish wandering the earth increased dramatically in the 19th Century due to the Great Famine---the last famine in Europe---when 4 million Irish died or emigrated across the English speaking world. The numbers of these to arrive in Grenada were legion: O'Neal, O'Halloran, O'Brien, O'Reilly, O'Sullivan, Murphy, McCann, McGuire, McSweeney,McCarthy, McCabe, Quinn and of course, Grenada's own Galway Donovan, mentor of national hero, Teddy Marryshow\n\nIn 1827, the first Irish priest arrived in Grenada, a Fr. O'Callaghan. He was followed by Fr. Anthony O Hannan, who caused a rift in the Catholic Church in St.Georges and set up his own church for six years at the building in Lucas Street, still known today as La Chapelle.\n\nThe last formal group to arrive were the Irish educators. Kiltegan Fathers, Presentation Brothers and Sisters of Cluny who have done enormo
213248
there is no direct connection except for the fact that both st. patrick and leprechaun are irish. \n\nmuch like bunnies and Easter Sunday have no direct connection.\n\nst. patrick was known for having driven out pagan beliefs and imagery in ancient ireland while leprechauns are based upon Irish luck fairies and the Celtic version of dwarves, which were small slimy gold hunting tricksters. the only sensible explanation could be that because both represent good luck.
729912
I've read his post 3 times and can't see any mention of his religion. \nDo you think he doesn't know the laws in his country? Why do people feel compelled to point it out?\nIf he was Irish, would you all be saying "Catholics don't allow homosexuality"?\nLeave you preaching where it belongs, and that's not here!!!!
417005
Actually, I have found that it is not.  I moved here from Ohio, and the friends that I have made, party for all holidays.  When I mentioned St. Patrick's day they were like "Why?"  lol they even joked they needed no reason to drink!!! cause they do that all the time.  There were hardly any decorations up ANYWHERE --
211049
Saint Patrick (386–March 17, 493 AD) was a missionary and is regarded as the patron saint of Ireland (along with Saint Brigid and Saint Columba). He is also the patron saint of excluded people, engineers, and Nigeria, which was evangelized primarily by Irish missionaries, especially priests from Saint Patrick's Missionary Society (also known as the Kiltegan Missionaries).\n\nHe was born somewhere along the west coast of Britain in the little settlement or village of Bannavem of Taburnia (vico banavem taburniae in his Confessio), which has never been identified with certainty. Sites suggested include Dumbarton, Furness and Somerset, or the coastline of Wales or northern France; another possibility put forward for his birthplace is the settlement of Bannaventa in Northamptonshire, for raiders captured him with "many thousands of people" according to Patrick's autobiographical Confessio, and sold them as slaves in Ireland. The tiny Welsh village of Banwen has often been suggested as his birth place. It was clearly occupied in Roman times, sitting on the Neath-Brecon Roman road and next to the two Roman forts in Coelbren. His given name was Maewyn Succat.
1174122
I'm an American of Irish decent, married to a American of German decent. It made my family so angry when I married outside my species that they all got piss drunk and beat me up. And then, they sentenced me to..........."The Wearin' of the Green Shoes"! So now, if I return to Ireland, I'll be marked for assassination by both Protestants and Catholics alike.  ;-)
1178149
I suggest the I.R.A. donate all their arms evenly between the Yobs and the OAP! Enough of you poor dumb...individuals kill yourselves maybe you will leave Ireland to it's rightful owners...The Irish!\nI do believe the reason the crown dis-armed the citizens was because the lot of you are to damned stupid to be trusted with a gun.