St. Patrick's Day

Brad MacClure - 2 April 2024

Have you noticed how in action movies, on any day of the year, at any time of the day, if you’re running from someone you can always hide in a Saint Patrick’s day parade? There must be something about St Patrick, that his legend is not even subject to the laws of physics, the space/time continuum bends around him. Seriously though, that’s not how it works of course. There must be many cultural phenomena which are celebrated of which you could argue there’s little or no way to tell how much of the story is historical truth and how much is just myth. So does it matter? Christmas is an example. A christian origin story fully laced with lots of extra-biblical and pagan stuff and for probably the majority of us, no ‘spiritual’ significance at all, but we all love it (unless you’re the grinch). It’s become purely culture and tradition. Most of us don’t really believe a twelve year old Jewish girl got pregnant without the ‘help’ of a human man.

The origin story of St Patrick is that he was born around 390 AD, somewhere in the Roman occupied British Isles. He was kidnapped by Irish raiders, enslaved and taken to Ireland where he lived for six years or so, before escaping back to Britain and then training as a priest. (Or maybe he stayed in Ireland, was freed, and got religion, it’s not known for sure.) He returned to Ireland about 431 and is credited with being the first missionary to Ireland, although both those claims are debated. The big myth everyone seems to know about is him having ‘driven all the snakes out of Ireland’. There’s no evidence to date of snakes ever existing in Ireland for Patrick to drive out. I guess it’s a good story, unless of course you consider, as some scholars do, that ‘snakes’ is referring to pagans and celts. So it’s really just about religious intolerance. He was most likely of Roman origin, so hence the brand of christianity turned out to be Catholicism. The recorded day of his death is March 17th, and its celebration was a just religious thing for centuries. It wasn’t till the 18th century, when Irish immigrants in America started organising parades and events, that it became a cultural phenomenon, and more about pride and heritage than religion.

As a musician who plays in an Irish band, St Patrick’s day is as profitable for me as a New Year’s Eve gig. It can be fun too. There are aspects that really make me uncomfortable though. They say ‘everyone is Irish on St Pat’s day’, except they’re not of course. They’re just pretending to be, complete with caricatured cartoon-like stereotypes (silly giant green everythings) and casual racism.

The alcoholism is supposedly part of the culture too. In my opinion this is insulting. I seriously wonder how Irish people tolerate it.

I don’t despise the concept as a whole. I understand that St Pat’s day is an opportunity for Irish, and folks of Irish descent, to celebrate their heritage. I’m fully onboard with that. We non-Irish get to celebrate with them too, and it’s lovely. It’d be so great though if we could just be respectful and enjoy it without the mockery. You don’t have to dress like a leprechaun and put on the ‘bog’ irish accent. Compare our Māori culture. Something I absolutely love about living in NZ is the fact that I get to enjoy, partake, and even in a small way own the rich culture of the indigenous people. I feel so very privileged to be able to live here and be part of what we have in that regard. That some of that culture may be informed by early missionaries is now just part of the picture, in my opinion, and so doesn’t make the experience less rich for me as a non-believer. However, can you imagine painting your face brown, wearing exaggerated traditional Māori dress, and getting drunk (as if somehow that represents the culture?) would that be OK? No… the answer you’re looking for is ‘no’. I realise that perhaps that’s a strawman; green-face is not the same as black-face, Irish people don’t actually have green skin. All the same, I’m hoping you get my point. That as we grow as humans, learn to be empathetic, and appreciate rich culture, even if it’s not ours, we hopefully can do without the bigotry, and can learn to celebrate other’s good fortunes without ridiculing them. When I was a kid we told Irish jokes that now make me cringe. The generation before mine seemed to think this was all fine. Hell, some of my generation probably still think it’s fine. It’s not. I’m sorry if you’ve read this far looking for skeptical content on St Patrick or his day, and don’t feel like you’ve received it. There’s plenty of cool stuff to skepticise over. Debunkable claims have been made about him; the snakes for instance. I think though, that the real interesting thing here is the cultural phenomenon. And how it can be wielded, like so many cultural phenomena, for good, but also for bad. Our goal as skeptical activists is to make the world a better place. In my little corner of said world, at this time of year, I find myself thinking that this means endorsing those things I think are kind, and actively denouncing the things that are not.