Sir, – It might be a great day for the Irish but I’m not sure St Patrick would be happy with Ireland’s ecological status: already degraded habitat being stripped away by modern agriculture; a long list of flora and fauna under threat; scenic rivers and lakes polluted; and our green vales not as green as they used to be.
A prayer attributed to St Patrick (composed about AD 433) called The Deer’s Cry has been adopted by environmental awareness campaigns in recent years. And rightly so, because like most of the Irish saints, Patrick had a spiritual bond with the landscape and the creatures that inhabit it.
While we may discount the story about him banishing snakes (they hadn’t been around since the Ice Age) there’s no reason to disbelieve that he intervened to save a stag from a hunt.
The stag, falling down from exhaustion, was ready to give up the ghost when Patrick halted the cavalcade of death and the stag ran to safety.
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Like Ireland’s other beloved patron, St Brigid of Kildare, he had a top-notch record on animal protection: the opposite of many present-day politicians, considering the anti-fox hunting Bill that was heavily defeated in December. Hares also continue to run from hyped-up dogs at the annual National Coursing Festival.
Unlike the snakes he never saw, let alone banished, our native hare was a familiar feature of the landscape during Patrick’s Earthly sojourn. – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.
