Page 13 - IRISH HISTOEY - CHAPT 1_Neat

A Bare Bones History of Ireland Chap 1

The Shamrock
Whether St. Patrick was speaking to local pagans who knew
nothing of the Christian faith, or to neophytes, newly-baptized
disciples who were not well-grounded in the truths of the faith, he
was faced with the daunting task of explaining profound mysteries
such as the Trinity which are so difficult to understand.
There are several popular legends about how St. Patrick used the
shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinity. According to one St Patrick with the
story, St. Patrick went to Connaught where he met two of King Shamrock
Laoghaire’s daughters, Ethne and Fedelm. St. Patrick had been
unable to persuade the king to convert, but he convinced the king’s daughters. During
their time of instruction St. Patrick used a shamrock to visualize the mystery of the
Trinity, how a single plant with three leaves is analogous to the one Triune God with
three separate and distinct.

St Patrick and Armagh
St Patrick founded his first stone Church in Ireland on the site now occupied by St
Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Armagh, known as Sally Hill, in the year
445. But the hill where the twin-spired Catholic Cathedral now stands is not without
Patrician associations.

The Book of Armagh, relates a beautiful tradition which is also depicted in the lower
portion of the Cathedral’s great east window. When St Patrick took possession of
Sally Hill a deer with her fawn allegedly leaped from the bushes. His companions
wanted to catch and kill the fawn but the Saint would not allow them. He himself
took the animal on his shoulders and carried it, followed by its mother, to Tealach na
Licci (Sandy Hill), the site of the present
Catholic Cathedral. The incident has been
fondly construed as a prophetic reference by
Patrick to the building of another Cathedral in
his honour 1400 years later.

St Patrick’s Grave
St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was buried
here on the site of the existing Downpatrick
Cathedral, Co. Down - most likely somewhere
under the present church. The reputed burial place of
St. Patrick in Downpatrick, Co. Down
A stone placed in the graveyard in 1900
commemorates the fact that Patrick's burial place is on the hill. One cannot be certain
of the exact spot of his burial, but the Memorial Stone, a slab of granite from the
nearby Mourne Mountains, traditionally marks his grave.
Crosses from the 9th, 10th and 12th Centuries are preserved in the Cathedral.
Outside the east end of the Cathedral stands a weathered high cross made of granite,
dating from the 10th or 11th Centuries, which used to stand in the centre of
Downpatrick.

Irish Monasticism – The Land of Saints and Scholars

We knew that the Celts founded the first Europe, but very few are aware that Irish monks
had a very important role in Medieval Europe, which they transformed culturally and

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