If you thought you knew everything about St Patrick’s Day (on March 17th), then read on:
1. St Patrick wasn’t Irish. He was born to Roman parents in Britain (Wales, perhaps, or possibly Scotland) in the fifth century.
2. According to legend, he used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Trinity when he introduced Christianity to Ireland.
3. His favourite colour was “St Patrick’s Blue.” Green didn’t become his official colour until the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
4. Traditionally, March 17th was a religious holiday and so the pubs didn’t open. All that changed in 1970. Until then, Dublin was (according to the Irish writer Maeve Binchy) “the dullest place on Earth to spend St Patrick’s Day!”