Is Ireland really devoid of snakes?

I don't know for sure, but I would be very surprised if Ireland does not have some species of jakes.

tdjsrt wrote:

Paddy O'Paddy wrote:

St Patrick was English...

a) I LOLed when reading your (whole) post. Nice job.

b) We can probably say "British" for St. Pat, but let's hold off on the "English." He was more likely Welsh.

He was born in the north-west of England and later captured by the Welsh.

slainte wrote:

[Snip] Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought the business about St. Patty driving the snakes out of Ireland was a metaphor for converting the pagans to Christianity.

Yes, I think so, too, as it employs imagery similar to that of St. George fighting the dragon, which I always understood to mean St. George fought evil.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote:

slainte wrote:

[Snip] Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought the business about St. Patty driving the snakes out of Ireland was a metaphor for converting the pagans to Christianity.

Yes, I think so, too, as it employs imagery similar to that of St. George fighting the dragon, which I always understood to mean St. George fought evil.

Or cut off the head of the muthaf******* snake that St Patrick had kicked out of Ireland.

I haven't seen the big ones up here in the Tampa area yet, but I understand that they have so far had trouble handling the several nights of below 30 weather that we get. However, I have not seen any raccoons or possums and only one rabbit in my many runs in the Green Swamp. I have seen six or seven snakes of various native types, like coral snakes and rattlesnakes and there is no shortage of squirrels, that is for sure.

I'm Irish and I know it wrote:

Does Ireland have snakes? If not, Why?

The Irish kicked them out. The snakes became british royalty, but are not happy there and keep trying to return to Ireland.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote:

Yes, I think so, too, as it employs imagery similar to that of St. George fighting the dragon, which I always understood to mean St. George fought evil.

Interestingly the legend of St. George appears to be a case of mistaken identity. The "dragon" that St. George slew in the allegorical story was a symbol for Athanasius, a hero of the orthodox faith and "St. George" was his archenemy, the Arian bishop George of Laodicea.

J. Swift wrote:

ytuj6 wrote:

Which introduces a more serious question: what DID the Irish eat before they got potatoes?

May I make a modest proposal?

Oh, you dog. I get it, and it was possibly the wittiest and best placed off color comment on Letsrun history

i think not wrote:

J. Swift wrote:

May I make a modest proposal?

Oh, you dog. I get it, and it was possibly the wittiest and best placed off color comment on Letsrun history

Gosh. Thanks.

[Of course, it still doesn't answer the question of what they actually *did* eat before the potato arrived from the Americas.]

How are snakes in the Grand Tetons, WY (which is winter 3/4 of the year) and there are no snakes in Ireland?

All the snakes left Ireland to live among their peers in France.

Even I read it in high school and I went to school in Oklahoma. Everybody got it, joke's on you.

OK Let me set this straight once and for all as I have done quite a bit of original research on Irish and Celtic history.

The banishment of snakes from Ireland by St. Patrick is METAPHORICAL. What happened truly is the following:

About 431 AD The Irish Champion Patrick and the Scottish(Pictish) Champion St. Columba were matched in a game of Paganica (golf). The match was played on Irish soil at what is now known as Newgrange. In fact Newgrange was the CLUBHOUSE! It never was a place of burial or astronomical worship. It was a place to down a few cold ones after the round.

Anyway the match was even going into the back nine. On the first 5 holes of the back nine St. Columba sunk 5 consecutive putts of over 40 feet in length. Closing out St. Patrick 5 and 4. This was indeed a rarity back then as the conditions of the greens did not match the smoothness that we have in the modern game. Now in golf when you make a long , approx over 40 feet, sinuous putt it is known as a SNAKE. .St. Patrick was pissed and embarassed in front of his countrymen.

He lifted up his Baffing Spoon(golf club) shook it at the sky and declared. " Damn you Lord let there never be a snake made on Irish soild again."

And to this day if you golf in Ireland you will find you will never make a long curving putt!

I dunno about Ireland, but we know that Tel Aviv and Washington DC are filled with them

According to myth, St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland.

According to archaeology, there were never any snakes in Ireland.

In only a few hundred years, cults were able to convince the Irish they'd seen things they never had.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote:

Yes, I think so, too, as it employs imagery similar to that of St. George fighting the dragon, which I always understood to mean St. George fought evil.

Incorrect, St. George did kill an actual dragon. Not a "dragon" in the "Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen" sense either. We're takling an actual flying, fire-breathing lizard of considerable size.

How did Hawaii get rid of the snakes?

I think the driving out of the snakes was more a metaphor for sending out the last of the manly, testosterone-driven men from the Emerald Isle. Nothing left but swishies now. Just how I like it.

3 Lions > Irenaeus Of Lyons wrote:

Incorrect, St. George did kill an actual dragon. Not a "dragon" in the "Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen" sense either. We're talking an actual flying, fire-breathing lizard of considerable size.

Would this be a distant cousin of Nessie?

Was the shy dragon lured out of his cave by bacon? I hear that's what they use for Bigfoot.....