St Patrick.. our one and only?

Tales of many missionaries may have merged to make up our patron saint

- DONAL FALLON

WILL the real St Patrick please stand up? 

Back in the 1940s, there was considerable controversy when a scholar, TF O'Rahilly from the Royal Irish Academy, claimed that there may have been more than one St Patrick.

He claimed there was a compelling argument that two very different missionaries who worked in Ireland were both being recalled as "St Patrick".

James Plunkett, author of Strumpet City, said this "caused a national upheaval. If the careers of the two Patricks, through scholarly bungling, had become inextricably entangled, who did what?" Now, it seems broadly accepted that O'Rahilly was onto something and that these fifth century missionaries are collectively remembered in the form of a national patron saint.

More than that, St Patrick is not only the patron saint of Ireland, but also of Nigeria.

Some of the parades and gatherings to mark March 17 have extraordinary pedigree. New Yorkers first took to the streets in 1762.

Some Patrick's Day traditions are surprisingly new. The annual handing over of a bowl of shamrock to the American President only began in the 1950s..

Irish-American political relations were a little frosty, owing to our neutrality in the war years.