WHO WAS ST. PATRICK?
The man largely responsible for converting Ireland to Christianity over nearly 30 years up to the year 462 AD or thereabouts - even if the work had been started by other missionaries before him.

He was real then?
Most definitely, even if the facts about his life have been freely mingled over the centuries with legend and make-believe. A written document, his Confession, is tangible evidence of his authenticity.

Where did he come from?
An important thing to remember about Patrick is that he was not Irish. In fact he was what nowadays at least would be called British, even if he was of Roman parentage.

Where in Britain did he originate?
To be honest, nobody knows. Patrick himself refers in his writings to his father owning a holding near the village of Bannavem Taberniae but there is no such name on any map of Roman Britain. The date of his birth is commonly given as circa 389 AD.

How did he first arrive in Ireland?
As a sixteen-year-old and named Succat, he was captured in a raid by the Irish King Niall of the Nine Hostages and sold into slavery, working as a herdsman for six years on the Ulster mountain of Slemish.

How was the slave turned into a Christian missionary?
Irish pirate chieftains were given to raiding the western coast of Britain in those days. Hence it has traditionally been assumed that Patrick originally came from South Wales, probably along the Severn Valley. Modern scholars, however, now think of Strathclyde as being more likely. After six years, Patrick managed to escape from his master Milchu - legend has it that he was told of a waiting ship in a dream - and make his way back to Britain. According to himself, he had another dream of monumental importance. In it The Voice of Ireland called him to return to that country as a Christian missionary. As a result he went to France, studied to become a Christian and a missionary at the monastery of Auxerre, near Paris, and later was ordained a priest. In 432 AD, now a bishop named Patricius, he was sent by Pope Celestine to Ireland to take up where a previous missionary bishop, Palladius, had left off.

How successful was he?
Phenomenally so. By some accounts, he failed to convert King Laoghaire, by a odd coincidence the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. Other accounts say that he succeeded. Crucially, however, he succeeded in winning the king’s permission to continue his work in Ireland. Over the next two to three decades, he and his disciples travelled to just about every corner of Ireland. And his legacy lived on. By the end of the 5th century, Ireland was a Christian nation.

When did he die?
There is more than some doubt about this too. Some accounts say that he lived to be all of 120 years of age. Most, however, point to him dying on March 17 about the year 461 AD at Saul, County Down, at a church built on land given to him by Dichu, a local chieftain, who was one of his first converts. By the end of the seventh century, he had already become a legendary figure.

Why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s day on march 17th?
One reason appears to be because St. Patrick is supposed to have died (many say there is little doubt about it) on March 17, around about the year 461 AD. But since nobody knows in what year he died, it might seem unlikely that anybody truly knows the day on which he died either.

Another possibility is a little more complex. According to folk legend, March 17 was the day that St. Patrick took the "cold stone" out of the water - in other words the day on which winter could be said to be truly over and the sowing of crops could begin. Important dates in the agricultural season, in ancient times more often than not celebrated as pagan feasts, were routinely taken into the Christian calendar. The identification of March 17 with St. Patrick could plausibly be claimed to fit in with that pattern.

St. Patrick’s Day did not become a public holiday in Ireland until 1903, when a bill was passed by the Westminster parliament, after it had been instigated in the House of Lords by the Earl of Dunraven. It was one of the many pieces of British legislation which survived after what is now the Republic of Ireland became independent in 1922.

St. Patrick’s Day is also a public holiday on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, volcanic eruptions notwithstanding. The origins of the island’s celebration of the day date back to the 17th century when Oliver Cromwell was instrumental in forcing quite a number of Irish immigrants to move there. Names like Murphy, Kirwan and O’Malley are still commonplace on the island.

The Saint Patrick Centre
The source of perhaps the most comprehensive popular body of information certainly the most user friendly is the Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, County Down, just twenty miles south of Belfast.

The "World Centre" developed in recent years with little expense spared it seems, traces the story of Patrick through startling graphics and reconstructions and modern media techniques, many of them interactive. The latter make the center particularly attractive to visitors.

A film show puts Patrick into a modern context, as a symbolic figure who can bridge the divide between the diverse traditions of the people of Ireland - in a curious way to be simultaneously of religion but beyond it.

The center also houses a library, restaurant, conference center, an exhibition hall and a tourist center.

Handily, it is all just a few minutes walk from Down Cathedral and the supposed site of St. Patrick's grave and provides a focal point for the surrounding St. Patrick's country.

Quite apart from its role as a focus for tourism, the center is also a highly impressive symbol of a newly developing sense of community in the town, a role to which St. Patrick himself would surely give his imprimatur.