Memory is our key both to the past and to our identity, and we are usually fairly certain about the overall architecture of the edifice known as ‘our story’. Turning to Patrick—a crucial figure in Irish memory since the seventh century—memory’s headlines run like this: a young British boy from a well-off clerical family was … Read more
The Life of St Patrick and his Place in History, J.B. Bury, (Dover Publications, £12.95) ISBN 0486400379 John Bagnell Bury was born in 1861 in County Monaghan and died in Rome in 1927. He was the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, Edward John Bury, rector of Clontibret. He was educated at Foyle College … Read more
The Skerries Patrician Millennium Project hosted a conference of major international significance last May at the local Community School. Skerries and its islands were an important centre of the ancient Gaelic kingdom of Brega, which from the late Iron Age to the Norman intervention of 1169, approximately covered the same area of modern Fingal bounded … Read more
Patrick’s own writings, in the form of two documents, have survived the passage of time. One, the Confessio, is a defence against his critics. The other is an indignant letter to a man called Coroticus who had taken some of Patrick’s newly baptised followers into slavery. The problem with these writings, which amount to no … Read more
At the last annual general meeting of the Federation of Local History Societies, Rathfeigh Historical Society reported on the possible replacement of a statue of Saint Patrick on the Hill of Tara. The original was removed by the OPW, after consultation with the bishops ofthe area, for possible refurbishment but was found to have deteriorated … Read more