Irish Gothic Podcast
Join hosts Spence and Chris on "Irish Gothic," a captivating podcast exploring Ireland's myths and legends. Each episode delves into the rich tapestry of Irish folklore, where ancient tales of faeries, banshees, and Celtic warriors come to life.
From the eerie landscapes of the Emerald Isle to the chilling stories passed down through generations, the duo invites listeners to unravel the mysteries of Ireland's past. Whether you're a folklore enthusiast or new to the tales, "Irish Gothic" promises to transport you into a world where the supernatural intertwines with history. Tune in for a journey filled with spine-tingling stories, cultural insights, and a touch of humour as Spence and Chris uncover the darker side of Ireland's enchanting heritage.
Education purposes only.
Irish Gothic Podcast
EPISODE FOUR : PATRICK, THE PATRON SAINT OF IRELAND
On today's episode, Chris and Spence put down their pints of Guinness to delve into the myths and legends that surround Ireland's Patron Saint : Saint Patrick. Listen now to hear tales of serpents and kidnappings, and hear how Ireland's most iconic figure is perhaps not even Irish at all !
The Irish Gothic Podcast explores the origins of Irish Folk tales. myths and legends in all their dark, fantastical glory and how these vivid yarns continue to resonate across the world to this very day.
Join Hosts Chris Patterson and Spence Wright as they fuse their love for all thing's horror with a wellspring of Irish lore.
From the terrifying figure of the Dullahan to the origins of Halloween itself, if it’s a yarn you’re after, pull up a chair and let ‘Irish Gothic’ fill your ears.
Hosts: Chris Patterson & Spence Wright
Producer: Rebecca Alcorn
Production Company: Causeway Pictures
Bibliography:
Explore the sites of Patrick's life in Ireland here! -
https://www.visitmournemountains.co.uk/explore/saint-patricks-story
Follow us:
Instagram: @irishgothicpod
X: @irishgothicpod
Website: https://irishgothicpod.buzzsprout.com
Show your support for the podcast at: buymeacoffee.com/irishgothicpod
Checkout our other podcast - Hostage to the Devil, real life stories of exorcism and possession. Wherever you get your podcasts.
Causeway Pictures © All rights reserved
www.causewaypictures.com
I know all the folks round these arts and parts. Can't say I know you. Leastways. Not yet. But I dare say I know what you'll be wanting. Some of the crack, maybe. How we yarn with your sup, is it? No harm in that. Come on over. Warm yourself, hmm? I'll warn you though. If it's the old Begara and Blarney shenanigans you're after, you'll not hear them from me. Well, if such, like, pleases you, you sit on. I'll fill your ears. And see what story is meant for you. On this dark old night.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:So how are you this evening Spence?
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:you're going to have to forgive me tonight, Bence. I've got the dog running about the house, so if you hear any barking or sniffing or shaking, it'll be the dog, not me I'm good, Chris. There was almost one less, shih tzu crossed with a poodle, shoodle dog in the world this week. my new dog, you know, all about the rocket.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:He is a rocket
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:he ate my reading glasses. And I have been fumbling around like Mr. McCoo for the better part of this week, mate. other than that, yeah, we've had quite a few seasons this
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:Oh we have eh? The
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:I think we saw our first drop of snow.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:Have you got the snow up round you?
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:wee touch of it today, mate, yeah, a wee touch.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:We're too wet down here.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:These city slickers, you see.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:City slickers.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:ha, ha, ha,
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:I was just looking through the news there just to delve a little bit into true crime, which I know is a passion for us both as well. they reopened the case of the missing German hitchhiker from 22 years ago.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:goodness, yes, Inga Maria Houser, yeah.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:Yeah., they normally reopen cases when they have something to reopen, don't they? Yeah.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:that's a fairly, infamous and emotive case here in Northern Ireland, but Inga, was a free spirit, a German, backpacker who travelled in Northern Ireland, back in, 1988 and she basically disappeared after getting off the Lorne ferry on the coast. She travelled over from Scotland, disappeared and was found two weeks later. She's only 18 years old in a remote part of Ballypatrick Forest out in Ballycastle, County Antrim. as you say Chris, no one's been convicted of her killing, so that suggests something stirring out there.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:Yeah it's definitely interesting when these things come back up. I think when the things back through DNA, like the Golden State Killer and people like that, who have been taken more from familiar DNA, family DNA, than their own personal DNA but it's definitely an interesting case always worth having an eye on and maybe if something does come up we'll mention it again further down the line if something happens.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:Absolutely, that's one to keep an eye
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:But tonight, right back to the big man himself. He's so big he has his own day. So everyone out there, pints and put your leprechaun hat on because tonight we're going to do St. Patrick So, let's start off with the basics. St. Patrick was a patron saint of Ireland and was born in Britain around 385 AD to a wealthy Romanised family. I assume that means he was a Roman, then, Spence?
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:As with all these figures, we know of them and what is actually written down and provable is very different, you know, but yeah, Romanized family living in Britain, he doesn't give an awful lot away, he gives a wee bit of detail in his own confessions. He states that he was the son of a deacon and the grandson of a priest. And he was from Bannaventa, Burnia. I hope I've got that right. which is a town in the west of Britain. What we would commonly refer to as present day Wales.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:So what you're telling me is, Spence, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, All those who like drinking the black stuff is really a Welsh man.
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:that way. History would tell us he is indeed a Welshman.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:Oh, well, I mean, what can you say I do, there are some nice Welsh men,
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:Not when we're playing them at rugby.
chris-patterson_3_11-20-2024_190739:So how did he get to Ireland then
spence_3_11-20-2024_190742:Well his life took a bit of a harrowing turn at the age of 16. So Patrick was believed he was captured by Irish raiders, taken to Ireland as a slave, and he recounted that traumatic experience in his own words,
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:I was taken into captivity in Ireland, along with thousands of others. We deserved this. We'd gone away from God and did not keep his commandments. Patrick then spent six years in captivity, working as a shepherd on Slemish Mountain.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:That's right, Chris, Slemish Mountain. And just as a matter of, quirky interest, Slemish Mountain, and that's what we locals call it, I don't know if it's actually a mountain, but Slemish is actually just a few minutes from where I'm sitting right now, speaking to you. It's not too far from where I live, it's the Crow Flags, and he was enslaved there. So it sits in the Cornstone, British Ian, in Northern Ireland, and it's a very special place. I'm sure you've seen it,
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:I definitely have and I think that it reminds me of Devil's Tower in Close Encounters because it just sits on its own in the middle of the land so for a 360 you can see it from plenty of directions
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:That's very true, and it doesn't really matter how you regard it, if it's, the impressive remnants of a long extinct volcano, or if you're looking at it as one of those keystones from Irish Christian history, which all these pilgrims still visit to this very day, it is without doubt a dramatic, inspiring sight to look upon, as you say, just like Close Encounters.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:and do they still go up barefoot once a year
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:They do, Chris, and that's about 437 metres from the plane to the top. One and a half kilometre round walk to get to the summit. That's got slippery terrain as well.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:There's a lot of them. There's hundreds of them that go up and do that barefoot every year. It's not my cup of tea right now, but fair play to them it's usually raining.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:To my shame, even though I'm a local, it's been a long time. So I suppose I should make a solemn vow now to all the listeners of Irish Gothic that I will traverse Slavish at some point in the near future. Chris, you can have the air ambulance on standby for me.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:Yeah. Patrick was enslaved by a local farmer. And he was basically. put onto Slemish as a shepherd and anyone who's seen Slemish, and we'll put pictures up on the social media, it is, and especially back then, a very desolate place that would have complete solitude and that's where we think Patrick grew closer to nature and in turn closer to God.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:That's right. And eventually, Patrick, he later did escape Slemish. I think at the age of 22, he returned to Britain. But then he felt the call to come back to Ireland as a missionary, and he arrived back in Ireland around 432 AD and began to preach Christianity to the pagan Irish people.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:read a few things, but one of the main things I read was he was a bit of a scourge to the pagans. He basically, he did not like pagans at all, obviously. And he wasn't behind the door in driving them out of places. A bit like a witch finder general.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:Yep, he definitely faced a lot of opposition From the pagan Druids and hardships and persecution. His faith, dedication, led to the establishment of monasteries and churches throughout the country and the widespread acceptance of Christianity in Ireland. But definitely a character you can look at from two sides. I think we talk about that a little bit later when we're going to look at some of the mythology, some of the legends that St. Patrick is linked to I suppose the next link in the chain then would be his, death. Chris, is that shrouded in mystery
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:st. Patrick died on, can you guess the date? Not the whole date, just the day of the year.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:That's got to be more than 17th then, has it?
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:Of course it is, it's March 17th, though I'm sure there was Gregorian and Roman calendars that moved that around, but certainly March 17th, 461. Now we'll come back later to where he is supposedly buried, but I think we'll go and look at some of the yarned legends and miracles associated with the big guy.
spence_4_11-20-2024_191557:of Ireland, subject of many legends and miracles. In fact, he's known as the man of a thousand miracles. So, No shortage of material, Chris. It's just whittling it down a bit into a short podcast.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:Well, that's it. I mean, I've got one about an exorcism in a pub, but I think what we should look at first is some of the most famous ones. And certainly amongst the top is the shamrock.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:Patrick is said to have used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to a non believer. The shamrock is Ireland's national flower of course and traditionally worn on St Patrick's Day. The simple yet powerful image resonated with the Irish people and became a symbol of Christianity in Ireland. Have you ever worn a shamrock on St Patrick's Day, Spence?
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:I believe I have, Chris. I've definitely had a shamrock on, maybe an Arden shirt or something when we were playing the rugby,
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:oh, most definitely.
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:I haven't went full Shillelagh, I have to say, you know. At
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:put it up on the socials.
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:the top of Slemish.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:The story that everybody knows, that everybody's heard. St. Patrick got rid of all the snakes in Ireland. What's that all about?
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:That always conjures up images of Gandalf, you know, standing and driving, driving out orcs and what have you.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:Thou shalt not slither.
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:So the story goes that Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland into the sea and drowned them. We know that the, the scullies in the room would contend differently, they would say Ireland has no native snakes because they are, as an island it's too cold for reptiles during the last ice age and there was no land bridge to connect Ireland to Britain, so there couldn't be any snakes but, you know, it's certainly still too cold and there certainly are no snakes.
chris-patterson_4_11-20-2024_191554:Well, It's friggin freezing, I can tell you that.
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:it's funny enough Padraig doesn't mention Shamrocks or driving the snakes from Ireland in his confessions. All these traditions have grown up around the story and came much later. But, I mean, you can't hide the fact there are no snakes.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:Well, that's true. I haven't seen it. I've never seen a snake so, you know, all I can
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:Yep.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:must be true. most definitely, I mean, he seemed to have a thing with snakes, St. Patrick there is a story of him at the River Shannon. He was approaching some stepping stones at a small ford when he was faced with a serpent whose body was twice as thick as a large oak tree, blacker than the hounds of hell, and had two large eyes as red as blood. When the large serpent moved, the swell of water would disturb the entire river, leaving the water muddy for miles. Using only his hook staff, there's the old Gandalf coming out there. Using only his hook staff, he says, thou shalt not pass, no he didn't, he didn't say thou shalt not pass. He says, caught the serpent. And chained it to where the river Shannon meets at three points. There it would languish until Judgment Day.
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:Oh, that's good, that's good. Another story from Patrick again, associated with serpents, was when he came to the aid of farmers in the Galtie Mountains. So they believed that they were cursed, that their cattle and their sheep were dying because there was evidence of a snakebite. on their livestock. so this time St. Patrick armed once again with his trusty crooked staff only this time with the addition of a bucket. Chris,
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:As you
spence_5_11-20-2024_192606:As you do, set off into the mountains and here he found the killer snake and he used the hook of his staff to lift it and place it inside the bucket.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:Patrick then cast the snake into the depths of the Loch Musgrae, that's County Tipperary, commanding it to stay in the lake for seven years. From that day forth, the livestock and the land flourished. The curse was lifted.
chris-patterson_5_11-20-2024_192604:I mean, he definitely had a thing for snakes.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:These encounters, along with others, are representative of Christianity embollied in St. Patrick as he defeats sin and the devil embollied in the various monstrous forms and we associate quite often the devil with the serpent
chris-patterson_6_11-20-2024_193223:there is a legend about St. Patrick and an exorcism that involves an innkeeper and a demon. St. Patrick was at an inn he tells the innkeeper that a demon is in her cellar and has been feeding off her dishonesty. He tells her that she must change her ways to get rid of that demon. Later, Patrick returns to the inn and finds that the innkeeper is now serving her guests generous portions of whiskey. He praises her and takes her to the cellar where they find the demon withering. The demon flees in a flash of flame and Patrick decrees that people should drink whiskey on his feast day in memory of this. This is said to be the origin of drowning the shamrock on St. Patrick's Day.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:only in Irish Gothic can we bring demons and monsters into the tale of St. Patrick, which is probably quite a salatized story, Chris, do you agree?
chris-patterson_6_11-20-2024_193223:100%.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:I guess that's how we roll. Just to keep that theme going, St. Patrick was also believed to have raised the dead. So according to some 12th century writings, Patrick raised 33 people from the dead, including some who'd been deceased for many, many years. The Life and Acts of St. Patrick, translated from the original Latin, states, For the blind and the lame, the deaf and the dumb, the palsied, the lunatic, the leprous, the epileptic, all who laboured under any disease did he in the name of the holy trinity restore unto the power of their limbs and unto their entire health. In these good deeds was he daily practised. Thirty and three dead men, some of whom had been dead many years buried, that this great reviver raise from the dead. And they say that Not so much a party trick, much more than a party trick, but, it was partly his way of these reverences, these people he was raising from the dead. He got them to recount all the horrors of hell, the burning lakes, the torments, the demons, the worm that never sleeps, and he would use these reanimated people to convince other non believers of the terrible fate that was waiting for them deep down in hell.
chris-patterson_6_11-20-2024_193223:We've talked about this before, but he was using fear people to Christianity. He was trying to scare them out of the old ways, saying, oh, you know, there's all this stuff waiting on you and you'll go to hell, unless you do what I say. There's plenty of these stories. There's one called the black pig on the devil's track. I don't know whether you've ever heard of that one, Spence. Yeah.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:I'm semi familiar with it, but I'll let you go on there. And
chris-patterson_6_11-20-2024_193223:learned from a terrified local of a fierce and black pig, which was lying waste to the crops and the scourge of the countryside was lying waste to the crops and was the scourge of the countryside. Recognizing the creature as a demonic in nature, St. Patrick set out to find it and sure enough. encountered the creature. The pig fled and St. Patrick gave chase. The pig slipped in the wet mud and Patrick stuck and shook the creature with his staff and recited the Lord's Prayer. He returned to the villagers telling them that evil had been vanquished. From then on the pig was never sighted again and the harvests were plentiful. Farmers, animals no longer frightened the night. People were amazed. And of course, they turned to God.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:I do believe, Chris, that the little, bookend of that story is that some years later a farmer found a stone in a field. And on that stoner was an imprint of a human foot, and a cloven hoof, and the locals believed that the hoof was the markings of the devil, and the foot imprint belonged to Patrick, who had stumped the old gent, Old Nick himself, in the form of the black pig, in the submission.
chris-patterson_6_11-20-2024_193223:It's definitely interesting because when you look at exorcisms, I believe Jesus in the Bible did an exorcism and he took the demons out of people and put them into pigs. So, one of the first exorcisms ever talked about in the Bible was Jesus taking a demon out of a man and putting it into pigs.
spence_6_11-20-2024_193225:Goodness.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:So St. Patrick has clearly had a huge influence on not just Ireland, but the world. And as we mentioned earlier, his missionary work put him in direct conflict with pagan Druids. His faith and dedication was said to have turned chieftains into monks, Druids into priests, and it led to the acceptance of Christianity in Ireland.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Yes, Spencer in that regard, he is seen as a savior by many, a bringer of light to darkness of paganism. But to those pagans past and present with their own dearly held complex belief systems, Patrick naturally represented something entirely different to those Drs and Pagans. St. Patrick was the bringer of darkness not light, the instigator of destruction of their beliefs and culture. There is no greater exploration of this conflict than the legend of Oisin and St. Patrick in what has been called the Great Debate.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:It truly is a great debate. paraphrasing a little here from Vidae Augusta, Gregory's, Oisín from Gods and Fighting Men, 1904. Okay, but from that we, asked the question, who was Oisin? Oisin was a revered warrior. He was the poet's son of the mythical, I'll give you a clue, Chris. He's tall, he churns up the causeway, and sometimes dresses as a baby.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Oh no, it's not big Finn McCool.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:Finn McCool, son of Finn McCool. You can catch that on an earlier podcast of Irish Gothic. And similar to the other tale, we talked about the tale of Neira from our Cave of Cats podcast. Oisin, son of Finn McCool, also made a trip to the outer world. At the behest of a fairy princess, Niamh, she had fallen in love with his poetry. And there he lived with Niamh and the rest of the she, hunting and dancing and feasting and sleeping and dreaming for many lifetimes. But just as with Nira in the Cave of Cat's Tail, in time Oisín longed for Ireland and his comrades. So Leigh lent him her horse and she warned him that he must not touch the ground back in the real world or he would never return. So he came back to Ireland and he was still a young man and he set out to find his warrior companions but found they were all dead and that the pagan faith of Ireland had been displaced by Patrick's Christianity. And as he rode along despondently, he saw a group of farmers struggling to move a boulder. And as soon as he decided to go to the reef, he reached down, he tossed a stone aside for him, but as he did, he fell from the horse and he touched the ground. And in that minute, his hero's body withered and twisted, as all the hundreds of years gone by suddenly seized upon him.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Oh yeah, I mean, happens to me all the time when I walk down the stairs. Those farmers, when they saw the young strange hero shriveled before their eyes into a feeble old man, the farmers bought Oisin to the one person they thought could help him. Who do you think that was?
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:Yeah, it's gotta be awesome, Patrick.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:It certainly was and Patrick welcomed the wizened old Oisin warmly and invited him in to convert him of course to the new faith.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:And that's when this great debate then occurred between these two, I guess, opposing factions. So Patrick was urging Austin to sing the Psalms and he could be restored. But Austin replied that his strength was gone not because of the lack of singing, it was the lack of companionship of his friends. Patrick countered that the music was the music of heaven. It was better than anything Austin had ever shared with any army on a hill. Well then, Oisín, just you mentioning your dog earlier there Chris, asked St. Patrick, Will I see my hound in heaven, or any of my father's good hounds? You may want to cover your ears here Chris, or cover Luna's ears. Patrick answered, animals have no immortal souls, and do not go to God's house.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Oh dear, dear, dear, dear. A lot of people won't like that.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:I guess. So Oisín, He didn't think much of any God who would not abide the hound of heroes in their halls, you know. He then asked where his father and where his comrades, would they be in heaven waiting for him? Padraig shook his head grimly, said that they were men who knew nothing of the Lord, that they glorified in battle, they glorified in blood. And for all the harm that they had done to others, in the darkness of their disbelief, they would also not be in heaven. So Ocean said, if they're not in heaven, where are, where is my father? Where are my comrades? St. Patrick of course said they were in hell. And that's where you will go to Ocean if you do not convert.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Patrick then told Oisín about the fiery lake, about the torments, about the demons and about the worm that never dies. He keeps bringing these things back up. A terrible place to languish for all eternity. And Oisín must do all in his power to escape those fires. Hin didn't agree. He said to Patrick that no devil or demon could keep Finn McKool and the Fi Vienna under the bonds and has a sadness and spirits rose. Oisín demanded to know how any god could excel Finn MacCull for goodness.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:How could it be that God or his priests could be better men than Finn, the King of the Fianna, a generous man without crookedness? If there was a place above or below, better than the heaven of God, it is there that Finn would go, and all that are with him of his people. You say that a generous man never goes to the hell of pain. There was not one among the Fianna that was not generous to all. Ask of God, Patrick. he remember when the Fianna were alive or has he seen east or west any man better than themselves in their fighting? They used not to be saying treachery, we never had the name of telling lies. By truth and the strength of our horns we came safe out of every battle. There never sat a priest in a church, though you'd think it sweet to be singing psalms, was better to his word than the Fianna, or more generous than Finn himself.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:witless old man. That was Patrick's reply to that. It is my king that made the heavens. It is he that gathers blossoms to the trees, it is he that the moon, it is he made the moon, and sun, and fields, and the grass.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:If it is true what you say, Oisin continued, that your God is so unfriendly that he does not offer hospitality to any but those who obey. his rules and would turn out great and good men like my father. my father and my comrades are certainly in hell, but I tell you now they have either overthrown the devil and are ruling there themselves or they have escaped long since and they are elsewhere. And it is there, wherever they may be, that I am bound. I will go to no house where my father is not welcome.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:And at that, Oisin Afena thanked Patrick for his benevolence and breathed his last and went to find his friends.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:Wow. And that, debate goes on. That argument of washington's sympathic I think it really elegantly illustrates that clash of competing belief systems, Chris, doesn't it?
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:It most definitely does. I mean, you've got a scenario there where the old is justifying itself against the new and the new sort of struggles to justify itself for a stop.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:I think as with many things Irish Gothic, when you peel back the surface a bit, there's so much more to learn. And we've found that every step of the way. And with St. Patrick, there's so much more than, jaunty leprechaun hats and shillelaghs and shamrocks. Have you any final
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Well, I definitely, I mean, we could talk about and we touched on it. A little bit earlier on, but of course he died on. The 17th of March, 461 A. D. And legend said that he's buried outside Down Cathedral in Down Patrick. At the highest part of the cathedral lies the grave of St. Patrick. Have you ever been there, Spence? Have you seen the, have you seen the grave, the big rock?
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:I have actually been quite, quite recently, Chris. And even though. I was moaning about how hard a climb Slammish is. actually quite a steep hill up to the church as well.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:certainly is.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:it's a stunning place. A fantastic visitor centre as well. So much
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Oh yeah, that's reasonably, I mean it's reasonably new and it's the one place in the world which really holds the most information about St. Patrick. If you want to know the information, that's the place to go, that visitor center. So, on his grave is a massive granite stone marker. And that was placed there on Cathedral Hill in the early 1900s to protect the grave from the many pilgrims. Because they were coming along and chipping bits of the grave away and taking it with them. scooping the earth up. So it was really eroding away that area. So they had to stop that. St. Patrick was honoured as one of the most influential figures in Irish history. And of course, his feast day, which is March 17th, is celebrated worldwide. And that includes, Chicago, who turned their rivers green. Dublin, who has a St. Patrick's Day march, as does Belfast. And basically, globally, where everyone lifts a pint at St. Patrick on the 17th of March. And I'm sure you do the same, Spence.
spence_7_11-20-2024_194121:I do, Chris, and now I'll be able to, show off and drop a few little tidbits of information about St. Patrick, which think it's fair to say most people maybe don't know, so it's, uh, and we're so lucky, Chris, to have these, as I say, a few miles from here, there's the mountain, there's Flemish, some miles in the other direction. There's where he's buried. There's the river where he drove out. We're so, so lucky to have this as part of our landscape. But I'm sure Chris you'll be able to put up some photographs and things onto the show docks. To let folks from further afield see what we're talking about.
chris-patterson_7_11-20-2024_194118:Most definitely. we'll get some stuff up there and also Spence, after you've had a few Guinnesses, you can go out with your big staff and, beat down the pagans. Because seemingly he was the scourge of the pagans. that's pretty much St. Patrick. There's a few other stories, but if you need to find them, you can look in the show notes and there's plenty of links in there that'll tell you the thousands of stories that may be true and may not be true.
chris-patterson_9_11-20-2024_200001:So that, Spence, was St. Patrick. So you can put down your green beer and box back up your shillelaghs. Because next week we're back on the monster trail the kelpie. And just give me a brief what the
spence_9_11-20-2024_200004:Well, the Kilpie is one of those very fearsome enigmatic creatures, Chris. It's a shape shifting, Leviathan, I guess, some might say, that sort of stalks the shores of lonely lakes and lochs and rivers, looking for the unwary to pull into the depths.
chris-patterson_9_11-20-2024_200001:Oh, I think you've said enough. You've said enough. You've set me up for next week. So make sure you tune in next week to hear more about that shapeshifting monster. But until then, goodnight folks.
spence_9_11-20-2024_200004:Bye, folks.
Looks like your story has found you. I wish It were another. But what's meant for you, won't go by you. I'm sorry. Ach, now. No need to look so scared, eh? Enjoy the fire. Have a sop. Sure. Is it all just Irish Gothic? All just Irish Gothic.
chris-patterson_10_10-17-2024_205438:You can find us at iris gothic pod on Instagram or X, or if you want to support us, please buy us a coffee
spence_9_10-17-2024_205215:and look, while you're there, give us a follow to keep up with all things in the Irish Gothic Podcast. Send us any Irish myths, legends, stories that you'd like us to delve into next.
chris-patterson_10_10-23-2024_190653:The Irish Gothic Podcast was brought to you by Causeway Pictures. It's hosted by Chris Patterson and Spence Wright. And was produced by Rebecca Alcorn. All rights reserved.
chris-patterson_10_10-17-2024_205438:Check out our other podcast, Hostage to the Devil, which delves into the dark world of possession and exorcism. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts.
