St. Patrick...Myth Busting: Houses for Sale in Emerald Isle, NC

While St. Patrick’s Day is now associated with wearing green, parades and festivals (when they're not canceled) and beer, the life of the person known as St. Patrick has been interwoven with folklore and legend.

Busted: St. Patrick was not born in Ireland. In this blog, I peel back some of the myth associated with St. Patrick and St Patrick's Day, all in good humor, of course. After all, I have a good Irish name in Raczkowski. For starters, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was born in Britain (not Ireland) near the end of the 4th century. At age 16 he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and sold as a slave to a Celtic priest in Northern Ireland. After toiling for six years as a shepherd, he escaped back to Britain. He eventually returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary.

Busted: St. Patrick did not banish snakes from Ireland. Among the legends associated with St. Patrick is that he stood atop an Irish hillside and banished snakes from Ireland—prompting all serpents to slither away into the sea. This is undoubtedly more myth than legend. Snakes did not occupied the Emerald Isle then, or any time before St. Patrick's arrival. Indeed, there are no signs of snakes in the country’s fossil record. And, water has surrounded Ireland since the last glacial period. Before that, the region was covered in ice and would have been too cold for the reptiles.

Busted: The Town of Emerald Isle, NC is linked to Ireland. Emerald Isle received its name when a consultant hired by Bill McLean and George Spell to advise on the property purchase, flew over the Bogue Banks. The area appeared with its lush forest, a green gem in the middle of a sea of sparking water. The advisor suggested the name 'Emerald Isle.'

Busted: the tradition of St. Patrick's Day Parade began in Ireland. And, while people in Ireland have marked the birthday of St. Patrick since the 1600s, the tradition of a St. Patrick’s Day parade began in America. A St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601 in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Florida. The parade, and a St. Patrick’s Day celebration a year earlier were organized by the Spanish Colony's Irish vicar Ricardo Artur. More than a century later, in 1737, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in Boston and in New York City on March 17. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early American cities only grew from there.

Busted: Americans have always embraced the Irish. Although the Irish have celebrated St. Patrick's Day in America since before the beginning of the United States, the Irish were not always celebrated by their fellow Americans. Beginning in 1845, a devastating potato blight caused widespread hunger throughout Ireland. While approximately 1 million perished, another 2 million abandoned their land in the largest-single population movement of the 19th century. Most of the exiles—nearly a quarter of the Irish nation—came to the shores of the United States. Once they arrived, the Irish refugees were looked down upon as disease-ridden, unskilled people and thought to be a drain on government budgets.

Busted: Corned beef and cabbage originated in Ireland. The meal that is a St. Patrick’s Day staple across America—corned beef and cabbage—was, surprisingly, an American innovation. While ham and cabbage were eaten in Ireland, ham was out of the reach of impoverished Irish immigrants in the 19th century. As a substitute for the protein, Irish-Americans living in the slums of lower Manhattan in the late 19th century and early 20th, purchased leftover corned beef from ships returning from the tea trade in China. The Irish would boil the beef three times—the last time with cabbage—to remove some of the brine.

Well, I had some fun busting on a few St. Patrick and St. Patrick's Day myths. What is not a myth is living the dream here in Emerald Isle, NC. When you are ready to start 'living the dream' visit my website www.EIHomesforSale.com and request my free Guide to Living Where You Vacation or text your email address to: 919-308-2292.