St Patrick’s Day and Northern Irish Affairs

Debate between Adam Jogee and Seamus Logan

Thursday 27th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Adam Jogee]

indicated assent.

[Seamus Logan]

I endorse the hon. Gentleman’s remarks and pay tribute to all the embassy staff here in London.

I rise as a proud Irishman to speak in this debate celebrating the life and legacy of the late fourth or fifth-century man we know as St Patrick. But be aware that there may have been a number of people from the so-called dark ages who might have at least contributed to the legacy we now know. There is absolutely no doubt that it was Irish monks and missionaries who throughout that period kept Christianity alive, spread the good news and taught so much to so many through early versions of what we now call universities.

The efforts of St Patrick’s disciples, maybe contemporaries, are felt to this day. Columba and Drostan had such an influence in Scotland, and my own church is named for St Drostan, while another local church celebrates Columba. Members will have heard of the book of Kells, but they may not have heard of the book of Deer—a handwritten copy of the Gospels written a little later. It is now in Cambridge University library, but it was written in the north-east of Scotland in a local village. I was raised within sight of the slopes of Slemish in County Antrim where, according to his own account, Patrick spent six years as a shepherd having been kidnapped by Irish pirates. They allegedly came from Dalriada, a Scottish kingdom ruled by the McDonnell clan.

There is much uncertainty about where Patrick was born. Was he Roman? Was he Welsh? Who knows and, to be honest, does it really matter? Patrick apparently escaped back home, and years later, now as a cleric, dreamt that the people of Ireland were calling him to return and walk among them. There are many stories about his life in Ireland. The one that always appealed to me was how he broke the law by lighting a pyre on the slopes of the Hill of Tara in County Meath—a privilege reserved to the high king of Tara at the time, as a fire on that spot could be seen for many miles and many counties across Ireland. But so impressed was said king by St Patrick that he allegedly converted on the spot.

Patrick is credited with teaching Christianity to the Irish people using the shamrock, with fasting for 40 days on top of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, thus earning the right to judge the Irish at the end of time on the day of judgment. I think the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme may well have secured his future.

Patrick’s legacy requires little acknowledgment from me other than to credit the eloquent speeches of other hon. Members speaking today, so in my brief contribution I will recall some personal St Patrick’s day memories from the past 67 years. It was always a day on which one was released from the usual Lenten pledges, so as children we fogged the chocolate and sweets into us so hard that we almost made ourselves sick. Later, it became a day on which we would make the pilgrimage to Dublin, not necessarily for the St Patrick’s day parade but for the all-Ireland club championship finals in football and hurling, which were played at Croke Park. I am pleased to say that my own local hurling team, the Cuchullains of Dunloy, contested that final on no fewer than five occasions; an amazing feat for a small village in north Antrim.

On other occasions I attended the schools’ rugby cup final at Ravenhill—a tradition still carried on to this day on St Patrick’s day, so for me, as Father Ted would have said, that would be an ecumenical matter. There are many other memorable moments on this day, but a special one was sitting in a bar in Bariloche in Argentina listening on the radio to a live performance by my singer-songwriter daughter Aislinn at the London Irish Centre in Camden several thousand miles away.

I say to hon. Members: let us recognise and celebrate the life, legend and legacy of the man, or men, we call St Patrick—not least because it means so much to the more than half a million people who said in the last census that they were Irish and living on this island.