The White House fountain flows green on St. Patrick's Day 2009

St. Patrick's Day, March 17th, one of the most important dates in the Irish calendar has come around again. Patrick reputedly drove the snakes out of Ireland. There's some evidence that his crozier missed a few.

Patrick was also a rarity as a Briton who hadn't come to Ireland on a self-invitation! So Wednesday is a day to celebrate and for some to "wet the shamrock" - - History Channel Video

For more on Patrick, the following is an extract from the St. Patrick's Festival site: Within the Christian calendar Patrick has long been remembered with fondness. This began as early as the ninth century AD with the Feast of St Patrick’s 'falling asleep' – in other words his passing on 17 March. The Book of Armagh included a note directing all monasteries and churches in Ireland to honour the memory of the saint by 'the celebration, during three days and three nights in mid-spring.

Fables about Patrick ridding Ireland of snakes or his use of the shamrock to explain the Trinity, still endure as part of modern St Patrick's Day folklore and custom.

St. Patrick's birthplace was probably Roman Britain – most likely Wales, but perhaps Scotland or France. Patrick was about sixteen years old when he was abducted and enslaved by Irish marauders, under their leader, Niall of the Nine Hostages. He worked as a shepherd on the slopes of Slemish Mountain in Country Antrim. During this time he prayed to the Christian God while captive in a pagan land.

After six years an angel came to him in a dream, prompting him to escape and seek out his homeland. After travelling for more than 200 miles by foot, he was eventually given passage on a boat travelling across the Irish Sea. His first destination was Britain, but he soon settled in France. 

The Spanish origins of the Irish

DNA analysis shows that the ancestors of most Irish people came from the Iberian Peninsula, who moved north after the last Ice Age, which had depopulated Ireland. Dr Daniel Bradley, genetics lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, has said that a study published in 2004, into Celtic origins, revealed close affinities with the people of Galicia, in North-Western Spain. Historians have for long believed that the Celts, originally from the Alpine regions of central Europe, invaded the Atlantic islands in a massive migration 2,500 years ago. However, DNA analysis debunks this theory  and conforms with the lack of archaeological evidence in Ireland, that the "Keltoi" who had invaded ancient Greece, had migrated in large numbers, to Ireland. One in 12 Irish men could be descended from Niall Nóigiallach -Niall of the Nine Hostages, the High King who ruled at Tara, west of the site that became Dublin, from 379 to 405 AD, according to research conducted at Trinity College Dublin. He was the founder of the Uí Néill (which literally translated means "descendants of Niall") dynasty that ruled Ireland until the 11th century. Finfacts article, Feb 2007: The National Geographic and IBM's Genographic Project: Charting the migratory history of the human species