Happy Saint Paddy's day...

Today is the day when millions of Irish people and Americans who are Irish when it suits them celebrate St. Patrick the patron saint of Ireland. In Chicago they even dye the river green in homage to the "old country" (see picture below!)

When I used to work in the USA I came across quite a few people who felt the need to rub my nose in their Irishness, usually via sneering references to the historical domination and abuse of the Irish by the English, a fair point I suppose, but little to do with me as my most recent ancestors came from either Ireland or Scotland, a fact which I seldom bothered to enlighten them with. It's amazing how emigration seems to concentrate and focus an inflated sense of self-righteousness in some people, a rose tinted view of history perhaps.

I never had such issues in Ireland itself of course, I worked over there for some years too without the subject ever arising, I fondly remember one particular March 17th working in Belfast, all I can say is that after a liquid lunch of epic proportions things became somewhat of a blur; those guys were always keen to be as inclusive to foreigners as they could be. The day became somewhat legendary as one member of our team (a colourful character whose name was also Patrick) disappeared on his way home back home to Dublin for the weekend, we didn't see or hear from him for 4 months, then to all our amazement he just turned up one Monday morning at the office asking for his old job back. He was always slightly tight lipped about what happened that day but after a few "Black Russians" one evening in the pub he did let it slip that on the train he got talking to a rather attractive woman and in his words "one thing led to another" and that was all he ever said! ... ah the Irish.

Talking of legends, I should really get to the point of this post, as you will know Saint Patrick is famous for driving all the snakes out of Ireland, a feat he supposedly accomplished with a wave of his staff from the top of a hill at which point all the squamates upped and left via the Irish sea. Clearly this story has more to do with the symbolic banishment of pagan religions from Ireland than actual fact but then again when has religion let the facts get in the way of a good story! :) The actual reason for there being no snakes in Ireland is simply a tale of evolution and geography, assisted by the recency of the last ice age. Snakes never made it across the open sea and are still absent to this day; however, the more keen eyed observers among you will notice that the above picture is not in fact a snake but a slow worm which is a species of legless lizard and quite at home in the Emerald Isle, I guess the moral of the story is that not all the snakes in Ireland are what they first seem.