Happy St Patrick’s Day
In Ireland, St Patrick’s Day celebration has been a public holiday since 1903 when the first parade was held in Waterford. In the UK, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother would present bowls of shamrock flown from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards in the British Army. In London, there will be an St Patrick’s day festival parade on March 18 which historically attracts over 125, 000 to central London and Trafalgar Square.
The Patron Saint of Ireland, St Patrick, a fifth-century Romeo-British Christian missionary and Bishop in Ireland. St Patrick is also called Apostle of Ireland and is the main patron saint of the country, with two other saints Brigit of Kildare and Columbia.
St Paddy is the founder of Christianity in Ireland who helped to the convert the country from practising a form of Celtic polytheism.
In 1917, Ireland’s famous stout Guinness was cause for true celebration, when Guinness steamships carrying 13 crews, cargo full of stout faced every day crossing 135 miles of the Irish Sea from Dublin to Liverpool, in the northwest of UK, three hours into its journey, disaster struck as a German torpedo from the UC-75 submarine hit the ship and split into two. The W.M> Barkley was the pride of the Guinness fleet, bought form Belfast shipbuilder John Kelly & sons in 1913. The WM Barkley Ship’s cook, Thomas McGlue, has been making a cup of tea when the impact of the torpedo tossed the hot water, scalding his arm and by the time he got to the lifeboat the sun had set and the ship was sinking. The Barkley was doing her best to go down, but the beer barrels were fighting their way up through the hatches which kept the boat afloat a bit longer. The floating barrels of stout in the cargo hold made it possible for eight of the 13 souls aboard to escape into the night on a lifeboat. After rowing, a while they set down the life boat’s anchor and yelled all night for rescue. By five O’clock the next morning, they were rescued by a passing ship and ferried back to Dublin. The remains of the Barkley now rest on the sea floor about 16 miles east of Dublin Port at a depth of 180 feet.
St Patrick’s Day celebrated around the world over 250 sites, have been taking part in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening. The Empire State Building, Sydney OperaHouse and the Wawa goose statue in Canada are some of the participants this year, turning a shade of green.