factoids:
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The lyrics to "Danny Boy" were allegedly written by an English barrister named Fred Weatherly, while he was riding on a commuter train.
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The first three days of April are called the "Borrowed Days" and are traditionally associated with bad weather. This derives from an old legend where a mythical cow boasted about March being unable to kill her. The result was that March borrowed three days of terrible weather from April to try and finish the cow off.
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Even Saint Patrick liked a tipple. It was once popular in Ireland to pin sprigs of shamrocks on your coat on Saint Patrick's day in remembrance of his using shamrock leaves to illustrate the idea of the holy trinity. At the end of the day, one would "drown the shamrock" by putting a few shamrocks into a glass and covering them with whiskey.
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The very first St. Patrick's Day parade in America was hosted by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston in 1737.
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Historians believe St. Patrick's real name was "Maewyn Succat."
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"Gulliver's Travels" writer Jonathan Swift is buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.
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In 1800, the population of Ireland was almost twice as large as that of the United States. By 2000, America's population was about 60 times that of Ireland
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IRELAND FACT: THE REAL FIRST SAINT OF EIRE...Ireland's first saint was not Saint Patrick. He was Saint Abban, who went to preach in England during the 2nd century.
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St. Patrick introduced the Roman alphabet and Latin literature into Ireland. After his death, Irish monasteries became Europe's leading intellectual centers.
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The national symbol of Ireland is the Celtic harp, not the shamrock.
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