Áras an Phiarsaigh
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Nest Building
These crows in Childers’ Park are out collecting materials for their nests. Traditionally people believe that crows, who are very intelligent birds, know when it’s March 1st for that is when they start nest building.
Crows mate for life and their lifespan is about 7 to 8 years.
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From the Schools’ Folklore Collection
According to a story told by his grandfather to Tom Reaney in Galway for the Schools’ Folklore of the 1930s, St. Patrick used intimidation and other scare tactics in his work of converting pagand to Christianity.
Óisín and St. Patrick
When Oisin came from Tir na n-Óg he met St Patrick and St Patrick tried to convert him. Oisin did not believe in being converted and St Patrick told him that all his Fianna were down in hell. Oisin then said that if only Conan Maol the worst man of the Fianna was there he would bring the forge and the devil with him on his back. St Patrick then brought Oisin down to Lough Derg and told him to sit there. After a while Oisin fell asleep and had a dream.
In his dream he saw hell and when he woke he asked St Patrick to take his comrades out of hell and so Patrick said, “out of hell there is no redemption”. He then asked St Patrick to relieve them. Oisin then said,
“if all the land on earth were paper nd the sea were ink and all the quills of the fowl were pens and all that were born since Adam and Eve were clerks they could not write down the one third of the pains of hell.”
Oisin then asked for baptism. While he was being baptised St Patrick put the Staff that he was carrying accidentally through Oisin’s foot,
“I am sorry”, said St Patrick, ” I have your foot cut”.
and Oisin said
“I thought it was part of the baptism”.
St Patrick then said that Oisin was forgiven.
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Wise Words
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Luke Wadding
We may be hearing a bit more about this man soon as he was the only Irishman to receive a vote in a papal election.
Here is a small extract from a long Wikipedia article about him.
Luke Wadding was born on 16 October 1588 into a prominent Old English merchant family in Waterford. He was particularly well connected on both sides of his family. His mother, Anastasia Lombard, belonged to another important Old English family. Members of the Wadding family supplied mayors to Waterford City, and Luke Wadding was related to a number of famous Irish bishops of the time, among them Peter Lombard, archbishop of Armagh, David Rothe, bishop of Ossary, and Patrick Comerford, bishop of Waterford. Little is known of his early education in Waterford, although it would seem that he acquired a knowledge of Latin, probably not a difficult task for someone with such linguistic flair: in his lifetime he became proficient in Hebrew, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. After his mother’s death from the plague in 1602, Wadding accompanied his brother Matthew, a merchant, to Lisbon and soon afterwards joined the Franciscans. He was ordained in 1613. He began his studies in philosophy and theology in Portugal and was then invited to join the Spanish Franciscan province, where he became a lecturer in theology in the renowned University of Salamanca. His formation in Portugal and in Spain brought him into contact with some of the most influential Catholic teachers and intellectuals of the time, including the Jesuit Francisca Suárez. Once in Salamanca he gained a reputation as a theologian with a particular interest in the historic and spiritual tradition of the Franciscan Order.
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Fact
From 1927 to 1961 the RDS dog show was the only place you could legally drink on St. Patrick’s Day. Huge crowds used to turn up. One T.D. is reported to have said, “It’s a great day out except for all the damned dogs.”
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