# St. Patricks Day Myth



## sweet lu (Oct 3, 2003)

is it true that snakes never in fact ever inhibited irland? like irland has completely no snakes? cause they say that St. Patrick got rid of the snakes cause they were mean to the people


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## Burf (Nov 3, 2003)

Correct, there isn't a single native reptile living naturally in Ireland. Nothing to do with st Paddy tho, its just due to environmental conditions and the fact its an island.


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## johndeere (Jul 21, 2004)

Snakes eat leprechauns,even freeze dried leprechauns.


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## Peacock (Feb 23, 2004)

sweet lu said:


> is it true that snakes never in fact ever inhibited irland? like irland has completely no snakes? cause they say that St. Patrick got rid of the snakes cause they were mean to the people
> [snapback]933451[/snapback]​


you cannot possibly be serious.


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## FreakyAcidTripper (Dec 7, 2004)

since every place started from pangiea or whatever its called where ALLl the land was connected you'd think that atleast one or two snakes would have been able to live in Ireland, unless snakes don't go back that far, not to mention all land is an island, just some are bigger than others. none the less thats a pretty interesting fact.


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## BoomerSub (Jun 23, 2003)

FreakyAcidTripper said:


> since every place started from pangiea or whatever its called where ALLl the land was connected you'd think that atleast one or two snakes would have been able to live in Ireland, unless snakes don't go back that far, not to mention all land is an island, just some are bigger than others. none the less thats a pretty interesting fact.
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The issue isn't that it's an island, there are plenty of snakes on small islands. The reason is that until around ten thousand years ago Ireland was covered by glaciers, which make very poor snake habitats. The ice age ended, the glaciers melted, and since there was no land bridge and no humans bringing them in they just never showed up.

cite

-PK


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## FreakyAcidTripper (Dec 7, 2004)

nice read, as snakes can be helpful to enviorments, has any research or effort been made to introduce snakes there? (scientifically, not just people throwing reticulated pythongs outside when they grew to big.)


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## BoomerSub (Jun 23, 2003)

FreakyAcidTripper said:


> nice read, as snakes can be helpful to enviorments, has any research or effort been made to introduce snakes there? (scientifically, not just people throwing reticulated pythongs outside when they grew to big.)
> [snapback]937252[/snapback]​


Why would you want to do that? It's not as if they were wiped out by human intervention, they were never there in the first place. Ireland seems to have done well without them for over ten thousand years, why mess with it now?

I like snakes as much as the next guy, but I don't go around trying to introduce them
in unnatural places all willy-nilly.

-PK


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## Peacock (Feb 23, 2004)

FreakyAcidTripper said:


> nice read, as snakes can be helpful to enviorments, has any research or effort been made to introduce snakes there? (scientifically, not just people throwing reticulated pythongs outside when they grew to big.)
> [snapback]937252[/snapback]​


Snakes are only helpful to an enviorment that they are NATIVE TO.

Thats same with all animals. Trouble comes in when you start taking out species or introducing them..

An ecosystem if left alone will function flawlessly.


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## pamonster (Jun 26, 2003)

i believer there is one type of small lizard there though


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## dracofish (Jul 13, 2003)

The legend isn't really about Snakes the animal. The legend is about the symbolism of the Snake and Pagans. The Serpent is a big Pagan symbol and the Druids were also referred to as the Serpents of Wisdom, so when they say that St. Patricius chased all the "Snakes" away, they mean that he chased all the Pagans away by converting the island to Christianity.

And that, my friends, is why I don't celebrate the holiday!


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## redbellypacu (Sep 21, 2003)

there has to be at least one snake or lizard that lives there


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## BoomerSub (Jun 23, 2003)

redbellypacu said:


> there has to be at least one snake or lizard that lives there
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Read the linked article in my first post, the one titled "cite". Ireland has one lizard, one newt, one toad, one newt and one frog (which may have been introduced by man). No snakes though.

-PK


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