Some slimy snakes gave saint the slip

ST PATRICK is claimed in legend to have driven the snakes from Ireland.

Three vipers he missed, obviously, were blinkered utilitarianism, unaccountable authority and private greed. These three are now seen to combine to drive a motorway through the landscape of Tara where, among other things, legend claims Patrick defeated Lóegaire Mac Néill, ‘Emperor of the Irish’.

Patrick, the first Paddy (although himself a Brit), unknowingly set the agenda for modern Irish history in protesting vehemently, in his authentic writings, that he was not ‘on the take’ from his newly converted Christian flock.