Alannah Hopkin on St Patrick: finding Ireland's wider picture

Alannah Hopkin, regular book reviewer for the Irish Examiner, explains how she came to revisit the story of Ireland’s national saint and how it helped her learn about her new home

Alannah Hopkin: "Ireland has changed - hugely for the better"

• Patrick: From Patron Saint to Modern Influencer
• Alannah Hopkin
• New Island Books, €24.95

When I originally wrote this book in 1987 I had carried an Irish passport for barely 10 years. Born in Singapore to an English father and an Irish mother, who, being born before 1948, carried a British passport, I was naturally considered British.

We lived in London, but, in 1977, I decided to swap my British passport for an Irish one because I intended to move to Ireland, to live by the sea in my mother’s home town and make my living as a writer.

I felt more at home there than I did in London, and longed for a more outdoor life than I could have in Soho, where I was then living.

I had a choice. In contrast, my mother left Ireland in 1931 with her sister to qualify as a nurse-midwife in London because, as she used to say plaintively, “There was nothing for us in Ireland.”

After moving to Kinsale in 1982, I continued to work as a writer and journalist, publishing several non-fiction books, a collection of stories and a memoir, and the years flew by.

Then new friends, who had not read the book when it first came out, would track it down, find it interesting, and ask me why it was no longer in print. I had had another book published by New Island Books, so I asked if they would be interested in a reissue, and the answer was, yes.

I made the move to Ireland in 1982, and by 1985 I had published two novels, neither of which had sold well. My London publisher did not want a third novel, especially not a third novel about 18th century West Cork which is what I was proposing. I was writing it anyway, while also taking on whatever journalistic work I could find in those pre-internet days.

Circa 440 AD, Saint Patrick, born 387 AD possibly in Kilpatrick, Scotland died 17th March 461in Downpatrick, Ireland, who converted much of Ireland from paganism and Druidism to Christianity. He is depicted with his foot on a snake in reference to his expulsion of all (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images)

I soon realised that, having been to school in England, I did not know enough about Irish history to write the novel, and I was quickly running out of money.

Even worse, I was not enjoying life in Ireland as much as I had expected. People reacted badly to my English accent, and only dropped their hostility on learning I had local connections.

When I admitted to having an English father and an Irish mother, I was then asked, “but where were you born?” as if that would clinch it.

The answer, Singapore, was no help. In London, I had been ‘othered’ as ‘mad Irish’; in Ireland, I was being rejected as English. Who was I and where did I belong?

This was the point at which my agent suggested that I write a book about St Patrick. Grafton Books was offering good money, and it could probably be done in six months. My financial problems would be solved, and the research involved a crash course in Irish history, which would help enormously with the historical novel.

There had to be more to Irish history than the narrow, sectarian story of 800 years of British oppression, and I was determined to discover the wider picture. St Patrick was an excellent starting point.

My plan was to follow the figure of St Patrick down the ages, and discover how the name of a humble and austere missionary had become synonymous with drunkenness, partying and disorder. Also, by finding out who St Patrick was, perhaps I would also find out who I was.

In the end, the book took 18 months to research and write. It was well received, both here and in the US, but it did not make my fortune. (Neither did the historical novel, but sin scéal eile).

PATRICK: From Patron Saint to Modern Influencer By Alannah Hopkin

I had mixed feelings about the book because my working title, St Patrick and the Irish People had been rejected in favour of The Living Legend of St Patrick. I hated the fake concept, ‘Living Legend’, and also disliked the book’s design and illustrations.

The original book has been very lightly updated, as it mainly features descriptions of historical events and texts which have not changed. 

But Ireland has changed, and hugely for the better, and so have the Irish people. We have changed from a drab, repressed country with a declining population where emigration was the main option for the young, to a prosperous, self-confident, multi-racial European nation.

That is not to suggest that Ireland is free of racism, at all levels of society, alas. After so long in isolation, there has inevitably been tension at the influx of new faces.

But as time passes, and people get to know each other, racist behaviour is seen as the reaction of an ignorant minority and not to be tolerated.

Many people who have settled in Ireland enthusiastically take up the option of full Irish citizenship, greatly enriching both the cultural and the economic landscape.

I especially hope that those who have come from other countries to find their home in Ireland will find the role of St Patrick in forming the island’s identity an interesting one.