Man taking photo at St Patrick's Day parade, Dublin

10 facts about St. Patrick we bet you didn't know!

Learn a little more about Ireland's patron saint...
By Megan Hills

From his true origins to the real color he wore, these fun facts will blow you away!

Learn more about the iconic saint behind the national holiday

While Ireland's patron saint day is celebrated around the country with parties and parades, what do we know about the man himself? Check out our favourite 10 facts about St. Patrick that you may not know!

A green three-leafed shamrock
A lucky shamrock

1. St. Patrick wasn't Irish

Despite being the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick was born in Britain in either Scotland or Wales (accounts tend to vary on that point). His parents, Calpurnius and Conchessa, were both Roman citizens and his mother gave birth to him in 385AD.

2. Slavery was what brought St. Patrick to Ireland

As a teenager, St. Patrick was kidnapped by a pirate raiding party and sold into slavery in Ireland. As a slave, he looked after and herded sheep for many years before fleeing to a monastery in England. While there, he became a devout follower of Christianity and was ordained a bishop, after which he returned to Ireland as a missionary.

3. The shamrock as an Irish symbol is said to have been popularised by St. Patrick

As the stories go, St. Patrick supposedly used the iconic three-leafed shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity while preaching. With each leaf representing Christianity's Holy Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it was a symbol that showed how they could be three different spiritual entities and yet all part of the same whole.

4. St. Patrick wore blue, not green

Although everyone is expected to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, all surviving artworks of St. Patrick show him wearing blue robes. It's the reason why through the years, flags, sports uniforms, and coat-of-arms featured the color. As time progressed, green as a national color grew in favor, particularly in the 17th century.

5. St. Patrick probably didn't drive all the snakes out of Ireland

One of the most popular myths about the Irish saint is that he rid the country of snakes, but modern science has since ruined that belief for everyone. As Ireland has always been an incredibly cold country, scientists have said that it's highly unlikely that there were any snakes to begin with and there are no fossils to disprove the theory.

6. St Patrick's Day is held on the day he passed away

In the Catholic tradition, the day a saint passes away is considered a holy day to celebrate their ascension into heaven. St. Patrick passed away on March 17 and it continues to be when St. Patrick's Day is held annually.

7. St. Patrick isn't technically a saint...

While he's been given the title in popular lore, St. Patrick was never actually officially canonized as a saint. However many still recognise his contributions to the Catholic church and he remains a spiritual figure to this day.

8. ...and Patrick wasn't even St. Patrick's given name

St. Patrick's given name was Maewyn Succat. It wasn't until he became a priest that he adopted a new name - Patrick, after Patricius (which relates to the Latin root meaning father).

9. 'Drowning the Shamrock' is said to have started with St. Patrick

The tradition of drinking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day is said to have started with the saint himself, who announced that everybody should have a drop of the hard stuff' after an innkeeper was less than forthcoming with a bottle of whiskey. While there was a brief period where drinking on St. Patrick's Day was banned, the tradition has since returned in full force.

10. Legend has it that St. Patrick's walking stick grew into a tree while he was preaching

Another popular tale regarding St. Patrick tells the story of how he left his ashwood walking stick in the ground, while he went off to try and convert the villagers of a small town to Christianity. The effort took so long that the walking stick became an ash tree which the town takes its name from - Aspatria, Cumbria, in the north of England.

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So grab a Dublin pass and go follow in St Patrick's footsteps!

Megan Hills
Go City Travel Expert

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Famous Irish Historical Figures

Meet the famous Irish historical figures who shaped a nation Ireland is renowned for many things - its rich culture, global citizens and so on - and a lot of that comes down to the Irish people. Meet some of Ireland's most famous Irish historical figures and learn more about their stories at EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum below. James Joyce Ireland has birthed some of the world's most adventurous and accomplished literary figures and James Joyce definitely fits the bill. Best known for A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses, his modernist works were truly experimental and while controversial at the time, his writing (spanning novels, short stories, poetry and more) is now held up as some of Ireland's best. Just don't ask us to explain it to you. Oscar Wilde The original dandy, Oscar Wilde was one of the world's first rockstar writers with a colourful personality and even more colourful writing (but only just). He didn't hang around in Ireland for long, drawn to vibrancy of cities like London and Paris, and his works like The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray skyrocketed him to fame. While his life had its incredible ups, it also had pretty harrowing downs and he was was outed as a homosexual after a particularly harrowing and public trial, for which he was arrested and changed the course of his life and writing forever. John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, or J.F.K. as he's perhaps better known, was the first Irish-Catholic man to become the American president. Back in the 1900s, his family did as many other Irish families did and migrated to the US from western Ireland to escape the famine and made Boston their new home. He was president during one of the tensest periods of modern American history - the Cold War - and was publicly assassinated during a procession in Dallas, to the horror of people all over the world. Constance Markievicz An unlikely revolutionary hero in the 1916 uprising, Constance Markievicz was born in London and raised on a wealthy Anglo-Irish estate in Sligo. However, she soon identified with Irish nationalism and played a major role in the Irish Citizen Army. She fought at St. Stephen's Green in 1916 and fought on the Republican side in the Irish Civil War, eventually becoming the Minister for Labour in the first Irish government, making her only the second woman in Europe to have a government ministerial role. Ernest Shackleton Ernest Shackleton, a resident of Kildare, left Ireland behind for even colder climates in the early 20th century to launch a highly ambitious (and dangerous) Antarctic expedition.Over the course of his life, he travelled there four times in a number of unfortunate journeys in which he grew gravely ill, was shipwrecked and wrote long detailed logs of his journey. While he wasn't the first to make it to the South Pole (a Norwegian explorer just edged him out of that glory), his dramatic tales of survival against all odds enamoured public imagination. George Bernard Shaw A Nobel Prize winning playwright born in Dublin on 26 July 1856, George Bernard Shaw was an Irish/British playwright and political activist whose influence on theatre, culture and politics extended through his lifetime and beyond. Best known for his play Pygmalion, which was famously adapated for stage and screen with actresses Julie Andrews and Audrey Hepburn bringing the Eliza Doolittle character to life, Bernard Shaw wrote more than 60 plays in his lifetime. He has been rated a second only to William Shakespeare among many English-language dramatists given his extensive influence on subsequent generations of playwrights. St Patrick Whatever your religious affiliations, there's no denying that St Patrick is probably the most iconic figure in Irish history. While he was technically Welsh, he was enslaved in Ireland and later became a Christian missionary that changed the course of Irish culture forever. Numerous myths surround him including tales of how he chased all the snakes out of Ireland and baptised many at a well where St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin now stands. And of course, he's the patron saint of Ireland and celebratory figure behind the most Irish of holidays - St Paddy's Day. Bram Stoker Best known for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula, Bram Stoker was born in Dublin on 8 November 1847. His popular novel paved the way for gothic lore and horror in popular culture and in his lifetime he wrote 12 novels as well as collections of short stories. A freelance contributor to The Daily Telegraph in his earlier career, he was also known as the business manager to the actor Henry Irving of the Lyceum Theatre in London. A lifelong lover of art, he founded the Dublin Sketching Club in 1874 and became friends with fellow Irish writers Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats.
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Getting around Dublin

If you're heading to Dublin this year and wondering how you'll be getting around the city, wonder no more. In this guide, we'll highlight all of the best ways to get around Dublin so you can make the most of your trip! Including: What is the easiest way to get around Dublin? Is Dublin easy to get around without a car? How many days do you need to see Dublin? Getting around Dublin: Public Transport What is the easiest way to get around Dublin? Walking is arguably the easiest and best way to get around Dublin. It's a relatively small city that is more than traversable by foot. But we'll get into that more down below! Is Dublin easy to get around without a car? Yes! Alongside the aforementioned walking, there are a ton of other ways to get around the city or even out of it. From trams to buses to national trains, you'll never be far from quick and affordable public transport. If you're traveling to Dublin from the States or another part of the world, we recommend you take a break from driving and let public transport do its thing. How many days do you need to see Dublin? It depends on how many things you want to do in the city! If you have a concert or other event to attend, or like the look of a number of Dublin attractions and experiences, you may want to spend 3-4 days in the city to make the most of it. If you want to travel outside of Dublin and see Ireland' natural beauty in all its splendor, maybe add a day or two to that. So, let's talk about getting around Dublin and the different forms of public transport you can take! Getting around Dublin: Buses You'll see Dublin's bright yellow buses all over the city, and they're easily one of the best ways of getting around Dublin. Buses run from the city center to the outer suburbs and vice versa from around 6AM until around 11PM, depending on the route. If you see any large blue or green lollipops sprouting from the ground, you've just seen a bus stop. There, you'll find maps, routes, and any other info you need to know. Cost-wise, journeys are determined by travel distance, so the longer you go, the more you pay. However, if you get a Leap Card, you can travel whenever and wherever you want without worrying about that. But what is a Leap Card? Image courtesy of EternalMoments/Shutterstock Getting around Dublin: Leap Cards Leap Cards allow unlimited travel on all buses or trains for a specific period of time. You buy a card for either 1, 3, or 7 days, depending on the length of your stay, and then tap it whenever you get on a bus or go through train gates to board any vessel. A 1-day ticket costs €8, a 3-day ticket costs €16, and a 7-day ticket costs €32. So, the more days you plan to use it, the less the daily cost. To pick one up, there are a couple of options to consider. Firstly, you can simply order it online. However, it does get delivered to your home address, so you need to book it far enough in advance of your trip to ensure it arrives in time! Alternatively, if you're reading this on the plane ride over, you can pick one up at the airport. Head to the T1 arrivals lounge and go to Wright's Airport Convenience Store. While it works on most forms of travel, it won't work on attractions like Dublin's Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour. But don't worry, we've got you covered! Getting around Dublin: DART DART stands for Dublin Area Rapid Transit, which is very clever when you think about it. While you may not use DART much if you're planning on spending most of your time in the city center, it's still an easy and affordable way to get around if you need to make longer journeys. DART serves over 30 stations, but you'll need to check ahead to see if it reaches a stop near you or your destination. If you're heading to the coast, DART is a quick and easy way to do it! DART trains run every 10 minutes from most stops, from 6AM - 12AM Monday - Saturday, and 9.30AM - 11PM on Sundays. Like buses, DART trains determine their cost by distance, so it's hard to talk about without knowing how far you're traveling. But, with a Leap Card, you needn't worry. Getting around Dublin: LUAS LUAS is Dublin's tram service, which is arguably the best way of getting around Dublin if you want to sightsee as you go! There are two lines, Red Line and Green Line, but since Dublin is so small, it's enough to get most people to where they're going. Trams run from 5:30AM - 12.30AM Monday to Friday, 6.30AM - 12.30AM on Saturdays, and 7AM - 11.30PM on Sundays. And guess what? Yes, repeat after us: your journey time determines the price. Look online if you want to buy single tickets, or pick up a Leap Card and throw caution - and worry - to the wind. Getting around Dublin: Irish Rail You'll only use Irish Rail if you're traveling out of Dublin, so bear that in mind. If you are, you'll be leaving from Dublin Connolly (which serves North Ireland and Northern Ireland, or Heuston, which serves the south. Ticket prices depend on distance, shocker, but just get a Leap Card and be done with it! Getting around Dublin: Walking And finally, perhaps most importantly, Dublin is a very small city. So small, in fact, that walking is arguably the best way to get around. If you're not familiar with walking, it's when you put one foot in front of the other until you reach your destination. It's a great way to burn off those Guinness calories while breathing in what scientists call "fresh air". Try it today and see the benefits for yourself! And that's everything you need to know about getting around Dublin! If you want some vacation inspiration to level up your visit, check out Go City! With our All-Inclusive Pass and Explorer Pass, you can see all of Dublin's best bits for one low price!
Dom Bewley

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