Like most Irish people I was born into a Catholic family, christened as an infant and had both my communion and confirmation but from a young age I loved magic, witches, fairies and all manner of the supernatural. I remember asking my father if I could be a Wiccan when I was around 12 years old, he was not happy about it and forbid me from doing anything related to witchcraft. I remember the day I officially in my head stopped considering myself Christian, I heard on the radio about the Tuam babies, this was a horrid case, hundreds of infant remains were discovered in underground chambers thought to have been used for the treatment of sewage waste water at a Catholic institution in Tuam, County Galway and like most I blamed God for something people did. I started looking into Paganism, buying books and tools, I never got into doing spells or anything but I did meditate, study tarot and tried the Ouija board, I was Pagan for many years and I loved it until the end but never got from it what I originally wanted... Magic.

So you're probably wondering "What has this to do with Saint Patrick?" Well I'll get to that. Growing up we all learned certain things about Saint Patrick in school, he was a slave stolen by Irish pirates from his home in Wales, he became a priest, he used the shamrock to explain the holy trinity, he converted the Irish to Christianity, he dressed all in green, he wore a tall hat, he is the patron saint of Ireland and he drove snakes off the island of Ireland.
So firstly lets correct somethings here,

#1 There is no evidence in any writings from saint Patrick's time or from saint Patrick himself about him using the shamrock to explain the holy trinity.                               

#2 He did not dress all in green he wore blue, green became a popular Irish colour during Wolfe Tone's time when Irish people would wear green clothing or they would pin a bunch of green shamrocks to their clothes to show support to Wolfe Tone's rebellion against the English (people were hung if caught wearing green) 

#3 He did not drive snakes out of Ireland, there were never snakes in Ireland.     

So as a Pagan I figured out that the snakes represented the Pagans in Ireland before saint Patrick came with Christianity so now how could I celebrate the man that drove my people from this land (haha) I wasn't that dramatic about it but I decided not to celebrate saint Patrick's day from then on (I don't really drink and I'm an introvert so I didn't mind) but now after finding my way back to God and having a son who I wanted to celebrate Irish things with, I had to look into saint Patrick. This is what I found after reading some things about him:

He loved the Irish people and fought to protect them, he was a very humble man and a very intelligent man, when he had completed his mission and was home with his family he would dream of Ireland and the Irish and he choose to return and live out the rest of his life with the Irish he loved so much. He died 17th of March 461 AD at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland.

I always get annoyed when I see things about the Celtic Pagan Irish being savages who practised human scarifies or the Pagan kings being like mad dogs, firstly how can anyone know what happened hundreds or thousands of years ago, its all just their theories that we must believe because they know what they are talking about and we don't. For me saint Patrick is more proof the Pagan Irish were not murderous lunatics, how could a foreigner convert the Pagan kings of Ireland without any violence if they were mad dogs? One lonely man from another land preaching about a different God and a different way of life, why didn't these mad Pagan kings not kill him when he arrived at their doors? Saint Patrick was beloved by the Irish and I finally understand my ancestors love for this outsider, I also now know the snakes did not represent the Pagan Irish but the demons who corrupted them, who whispered in peoples ears and twisted good thoughts into dark deeds.

Ireland and the Irish are so much more than the modern Irish give them credit for,

• They were druids respected by all.
• They were kind and gentle kings and warriors who instead of murdering each other after a fight would cut the losers hair so everyone would know he was defeated, when you saw a man with long mad hair it meant he was a warrior undefeated, at least undefeated long enough for his hair to grow that length.
• Ireland had war queens who fought alongside their men in battle, Irish men loved and respected Irish women and valued their advice.
• They were monks and scholars who translated and wrote the bible, men who spent all day drawing beautiful intricate drawings and writing using a quill and ink, they created the book as we know it today, although it has shrunk in size, they raised the sheep that was then used to create the leather for the bibles and these men also fought off vikings.
• They were artists of all forms, poets, singers, musicians, writers, painters etc...
• They were fighters and even after hundreds of years of terrorism from the English they have remained Irish.

I am proud to be Irish.

☘💚☘HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY☘💚☘