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St. Patrick and the Irish Today
Rare it is in human history when one man can make a literal difference in history. But when it does happen, there is no doubt about it. Both for good and for evil, individuals do change the world. It’s just not known until their end, of course. For that is when the story is told.
St. Patrick came to Ireland a broken young man. Alone, beaten, torn from his family, he faced utter obliteration as a slave at the hands of pagan barbarians who were so savage that the Romans had forsaken their conquest. A fate worse than death for this patrician Briton. Yet in his solitude on the mountains of northern Ireland tending sheep, Ireland’s Moses rediscovered his faith in God, learnt the language of his oppressors, and grew into a man who would not only survive but pluck up the courage to break free from pagan bondage.
This story would be worthy of an Oscar-worthy film if it was set in the deep South, but gets more amazing when one realises that his story was not yet done. Not only did the slave return home to his parents, he decided to dedicate his life as a Catholic priest to God in thanks for his liberation. But then against the counselling of all, the mother of all plot twists was to come. Patrick would go back to his slavers, he would return to the Irish. Rather than letting them burn in hell, Patrick chose to bring the gospel of salvation to a land steeped in the darkness of pagan evil.
Patrick and his fellow Christians (there were other Christians here too preaching) began the process of Christianising and civilising (there was no written records pre Patrick’s arrival) so history literally began with for Ireland then. Over the next century a literal miracle occurred as the land of barbarians became a literal land of saints and scholars. Alas how I wish I could end my story there. But Ireland isn’t known for its happy endings.
Now 1,600 years later, a similar but not unfamiliar darkness has returned to the island of Patrick. The Catholic Christian faith that the Irish have held onto for centuries against the druids, the pagans, the Vikings, the English, and many other invaders who sought its harm is on the ropes as a result of a new vicious soul-destroying force — secular liberal materialism. No Western society post the Second World War has survived its force, only delayed such poison which is now found in every post-Christian land, including Ireland. When it came from the 1960s onwards, even Patrick and his wonders would have been hard-pressed to counter it.
It also cannot be not forgotten that such a revolution would not have succeeded so fast and so quickly at least in Ireland were it not for the modern-day Judases and Pharisees found amongst the leadership and body of the 20th century Irish Catholic Church. Many who fell in love with money and the privilege of political power, many with no real vocation and hundreds perhaps thousands who spat on everything Christ stood for and aided and abetted the torture and abuse of thousands of Irish children and women in ways the secular Irish media enjoy recalling every chance they get. They damned themselves, and sadly they disgraced the life-giving story of the Gospel for many Irish people.
Nor do Irish people themselves who called themselves Catholics get a pass either. It was they who sent their own children to those hell holes, they who encouraged people with no vocation into religious life, they who gave a pass to the clergy to make their faith/ moral decisions for them, and they who paid lip service to the gospel whilst sneering at those who failed it openly. Probably the biggest cause of Ireland’s decline in Catholic faith is due to their failure to encapsulate in their own children the true life-giving words of the gospel and live it from the moment they baptised their children. Someone should have told them that baptism isn’t just a day-out ceremony, but a promise. One which they didn’t take seriously. Liberal secularism found no better ally with their disgrace.
Sadly, such a viewpoint that has ruined Europe is now destroying the faith in Ireland, turning the island into a de facto pagan land again. No better description of such evil was in the revival of child-killing, the ancient druidic practice. In 2018 in a manner eerily referencing Jesus’s death on Good Friday, abortion on demand was passed in a referendum. There have been other changes and evils brought into Ireland before, but never was such an evil allowed and endorsed by the Irish people. We chose death, it is death we received.
Even in 2023, the ramifications are still being felt here. No more so than today, funnily enough. Last year a Christian group wanted to engage in a St. Patrick’s Day parade. A chance to evangelise the true Christian story of Patrick in Dublin, Ireland’s most secular city. Yet they were refused. This was a secular event according to the organisers. Which is fair enough, I guess, until you realise the trans groups were allowed to march or the whole reason for the event was due to a Christian saint. We want to make money off Ireland’s best-known saint, but we don’t want Christianity.
This is the real Ireland. Ireland is a nation where diversity and inclusivity are adored. Except if you’re Catholic/ Christian. You don’t qualify. It can be infuriating and soul-destroying. Modern Ireland has abortion, same-sex marriage, divorce, and one of the highest levels of drug abuse in modern Europe. Suicide rates are likely far higher than whatever meaningless figure the government produces year on year. The same government that markets St. Patrick and Ireland around the world uses him to sell Ireland whilst despising the very religion he brought.
But whilst it is tempting to despair, and I do. I must not. Patrick’s God is one that came from the grave and escaped death before. I cannot but hope the same for Ireland. Even in the grey and ugliness of modern Ireland, whilst there are no St. Patrick figures emerging, there is the possibility and signs of a remnant emerging. Small yes, poorer than of old, and without the trappings or followers of the church in its heyday. But it is there.
Before I go, one last line of hope from the druids of all people on Patrick and Christianity in Ireland. “That he would light a fire that would never go out…” I can’t help but think this is right. GOD be with us, and please pray for us.
Published in General
I was hoping that we’d hear from you today.
Typical Irish lad, on his nations feast day, he does mainly misery porn. In my defence am Irish lol. And happy ending at the very end.
You are forgiven. After all, I’m sitting here listening to the Wolfe Tones, thinking about St. Patrick’s Day parades in South Boston 40 years ago.
Focus on that, and seeing the latter day snakes driven out a second time.
O Holy Hierarch, equal of the Apostles, Saint Patrick, wonderworker and enlightener of Ireland: Intercede with the merciful God that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offences.
This is in my window..
Slainte
Have faith Paddy.
What you describe in Ireland is not unique to Ireland and the Globalist, Oligarch atheists that have brought this scourge across the Western World may have overplayed their hand which may allow a great Turning to come about soon.
Let us hope so.
Keep me in your prayers lads for both my faith and also to get work. Going through a dry spell teaching wise at moment
We at St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Buffalo, TX, have finally been blessed with a pastor after a 2-year stint of visiting priests. He is Fr. Morgan White, an Irishman. He has served in the Diocese of Tyler, TX for ~20 years, and is returning to the diocese after a break to care for his dying parents. He seems to be very orthodox and a man in love with Christ and His Church. May the Church be blessed with more men like St. Patrick.
I can’t help thinking the neo-pagans are worse than the originals. The originals had the excuse of never having had Christ.
St. Patrick, pray for us!
I’m sorry you’re going through a hard time. I wonder, are you going to the evangelium event in Dublin at the end of this month? I went to a talk they organised for Halloween and was impressed with how many young people were there. I’m guessing you’re about 15 years younger than me, most people there were in their 20’s and early 30’s. It seemed to me to be a very positive movement to help young people with similar values to meet and discuss important things.
https://www.evangelium.ie/
Thank you for focusing us on St Patrick and not on the “celebration” of his “day” that I find tiresome and dull. He is a monumental figure in church and European history.
I am unclear, however, on whether or not you referred to oppression by the English as “pagan”. They certainly were not. I think we do need to draw a line between these.
The vikings were pagan as were the druids
The sin of child abuse by members of the Catholic Church has left an indelible stain. Innocent children were robbed of their innocence and many have been scarred for life. I meet some of these people through my work.
But, in the rush to move as far away from Catholic teachings on almost every issue possible, we now see our political leaders pushing to teach young schoolchildren about transgenderism and more broadly about sexuality ( ….in its “fullest sense” according to our supposedly apolitical President). This development is largely unreported upon by our traditional media, and those who object are marginalised. Soon we will have “hate speech” laws to silence dissenters even further.
However, my sense is that enough people – especially parents – are repelled by this to slow the march of sexualisation of children, if not to turn the tide.