evil_sheep on Sidechat | May be a day late but why the fuck is my reels full of people saying St Patrick was a colonizer?

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May be a day late but why the fuck is my reels full of people saying St Patrick was a colonizer?

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Anonymous 1w

It’s a metaphor for the colonization of Ireland under British rule. The story was about frogs and centuries later changed to be snakes since it would be more of a miracle since there are no snakes in Ireland. But themes aside the “snakes” in many ways represent the oppression of pagan culture that had more traditional influence of the land and people. Yes Ireland is steeped in religious discourse and there is heavy correlation between the Catholic Church and the Irish constitution/government.

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Anonymous 1w

He was a Roman priest right? Idk much about his actions except for the story about the snakes and the shamrock

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Anonymous 1w

I mean tbh a lot of the stories about the real historical figure are embellished or misattributed. Basically I think people are trying to retroactively apply colonialism onto a situation where the British isles were once much more multipolar and where there weren’t distinct power imbalances. Ppl probably wouldn’t portray it as colonialism if Ireland wasn’t later actually colonized

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Anonymous 1w

the Irish weren’t Christian. the snakes he got rid of were the Pagans. it was a genocide, like all attempts to christianize the natives

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Anonymous 1w

St. Patrick was a Scottish man who went across the water and did Medieval Catholic Church Behavior in Ireland dawg he kinda was

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Anonymous

cheese_of_the_world_unite 1w

I mean he was peaceful and was willing to redeem those who enslaved him. He was just one guy with zero backing but the mercy of those around him for zero gain and even in the stories he didn’t even convert that many people. Also he wasn’t catholic. The great schism would not happen for another 600 years

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Anonymous

#4 1w

But much of our Americanized understanding comes from a perspective of colonization. The potato famine wasn’t real. They harvested many crops and the British told them they could only have the potatoes. So when the potatoes had a bad harvest and infection, there was food, but Britain cared more about their trade than the lives of those stuck in Ireland. That alone drove so many over to New York and across the western side of the US in the early 1920s.

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Anonymous

evil_sheep 1w

interestingly, Ireland has its own schism from English Catholicism. something to do with the synod of whitby and the Irish practicing their own customs independently of Rome. i don’t remember tbh, it’s been years since i took a course on medieval English history

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Anonymous

_orangutan 1w

or ig proto-English since atp they’re saxons

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Anonymous

_orangutan 1w

Like manifest destiny and that painting that portrays it as religious salvation from “savagery or incivility”

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Anonymous

_orangutan 1w

They did practice Celtic Christianity which was separate from the more orthodox Christianity that existed elsewhere in Europe. St Patrick existed during the last stages of Roman Britain. The anglos invaded in about another century or so. So they were culturally related to the Celtics of Ireland than what we would consider modern English

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Anonymous

_orangutan 1w

But that story comes centuries after his time so why blame St Patrick for that?

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Anonymous

evil_sheep 1w

It’s not blaming it’s just understanding the history. Arguably the painting I’m referencing is beautiful as it stands alone, but it’s important to understand origins and why we even got to where we are to celebrate the holiday, with the ups and downs.

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Anonymous

#4 1w

Sorry convoluted. Separate thought between manifest destiny and why we mention these things not to deny the more face value story but why do we have it and such

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