By Demetrius Dillard
While many are waiting to celebrate the globally recognized St. Patrick’s Day, others are reminded of the grim, racist history of the so-called holiday.
March 17 is only a few weeks from now, and much of the conscious community who claims to know the true legacy of St. Patrick’s Day characterize it by mass genocide and stolen identity of Black people who once inhabited Ireland.
With mistreatment of indigenous Blacks as an overarching theme, this piece will briefly cover two subject matters: (1) the meaning of St. Patrick “driving out” snakes and (2) how the modern-day Leprechaun is a misrepresentation of the original Black inhabitants of Ireland.
An article that appears on So Am I Books website, an online collection of Black-centered children’s books, directly addresses those two abovementioned aspects of St. Patrick’s Day.
Before delving into these controversial subject matters, it is important to note the commonly understood origin of the holiday.
St. Patrick is a historical figure who flourished in fifth-century Europe, particularly in Ireland and Britain. He was credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Also labeled as a patron saint and apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick was responsible for Christianizing the Picts and Anglo-Saxons of the northern and western regions of Europe.
St. Patrick’s Day, celebrated every March 17, was originally the feast day of St. Patrick. “Originally celebrated with religious feasts and services, St. Patrick’s Day became a secular celebration of Irish culture when it reached the United States alongside Irish immigrants,” says a Britannica article detailing the history of St. Patrick’s Day. Well –the widely accepted version at least.
“Born in Roman Britain in the late [fourth] century, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped but returned about 432 CE to convert the Irish to Christianity. By the time of his death on March 17, 461, he had established monasteries, churches, and schools.”
Britannica went on to cite a few rumors surrounding St. Patrick’s legacy, including his use of the shamrock to explain the Trinity and, most notably, driving snakes out of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day is among the most anticipated holidays in the U.S., celebrated with elaborate festivals, parades and various forms of revelry.
Legend has it that St. Patrick drove out snakes, which is still widely debated today. Some ancient texts suggest that he drove out literal serpents while others allege he drove out pagans instead.
“St. Patrick’s day: Who chased out the Black indigenous from Ireland” is the article on So Am I Books website that endeavors to explain what the true meaning of “snakes” is.
The inhumane treatment and gencoide of the Black (Twa) Pygmy Irish people – another hotly debated topic – is well-documented and guides the narrative laid out in the mini essay.
What is presently known as the Leprechauns (Lepr-Akans/ variation of Old Irish “luchorpán”), evidently, is a spinoff of the original Akan or Twa people of Africa who dwelled in Ireland.
“It turns out that the Leprechauns (Lepr-Akans) of its legend were truly identifiable as the Akan/Twa by people of African descent,” wrote the author, who cited David MacRitchie’s “Ancient and Modern Britons” (1884), a 19th-century groundbreaking novel still frequently referenced by scholars today.
“Many years ago, they came to Ireland. The Twa was a skilled worker and had advanced technical expertise in the production of medicine, metallurgy, textiles and clothing, and interestingly shoe-making, which Caucasians [thought] was once ‘magical.’ So we conclude here that it used to be the Twa humans that are now recognized as Leprechauns.”
According to the writer’s research, it was that particular group of Black people who was forcibly “driven” out of Ireland.
“It is the Twa, that was ‘chased out of Ireland’ by St. Patrick and not, as the story goes, real life serpents,” the writer points out. “In reality, the history of the holiday is a secret attempt to disguise genocide, as St. Patrick led the charge to hunt down these men and women in order to kill them.”
The writer went on to suggest that there is no proof snakes ever existed in Ireland and that story was fabricated to paint St. Patrick as a “savior” of sorts.
In reality, St. Patrick was the polar opposite of a savior or a saint, and perpetrated genocide upon those who inhabited that region – African descendants also known as the Twa, the article highlighted. The snake or serpent was actually a symbol indicating that Black inhabitants were actually the one driven out, according to the writer.
“But if you apprehend that the “serpents” they are speaking of are symbolic of something else, this plot factor in the story will become a lot more interesting and better understood,” says the short essay.
“As established, beneath the “serpents” story is an allusion to the human beings of African descent (the Twa) who lived in Ireland. It is vital to note that besides Twa, some names for these people include; Naga, Nagar, and Negus, which means loosely “serpent people” or “people of the serpent”. The identity is also synonymous with Pharaohs and Kings.”
The article, which was published recently and updated Sept. 16, 2021, sums up its argument plainly: “Chasing the serpents out of Ireland is a metaphor for genocide.”
“So what St. Patrick is surely famous for, is waging a genocidal hostility against the indigenous people of Ireland who had migrated there many hundreds of years before the Caucasians and earlier than Christianity, who were African (and coincidentally, notion to be Pagan),” says the article, urging Black readers to reconsider celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
