IRELAND.
The shamrock is worn in all parts of Ireland on this day. Old women, with plenteous supplies of trefoil, may be heard in every direction, crying “Buy my shamrock, green shamrocks;” and children have “Patrick’s crosses” pinned to their sleeves. This custom is supposed to have taken its origin from the fact that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he made use of this plant, bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol of the great mystery.[26]
[26] Mr. Jones in his Historical Account of the Welsh Bards (1794, p. 13) says: When St. Patrick landed near Wicklow the inhabitants were ready to stone him for attempting an innovation in the religion of their ancestors. He requested to be heard, and explained unto them, that God is an omnipotent, sacred Spirit, who created heaven and earth, and that the Trinity is contained in the Unity; but they were reluctant to give credit to his words. St. Patrick, therefore, plucked a trefoil from the ground, and expostulated with the Hibernians: “Is it not as possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as for these three leaves to grow upon a single stalk?” Then the Irish were immediately convinced of their error, and were solemnly baptized by St. Patrick.
In Contributions towards a Cybele Hibernica (D. Moore and A. G. More, 1866, p. 73) is the following note: “Trifolium repens, Dutch clover, Shamrock.—This is the plant still worn as shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, though Medicago lupulina is also sold in Dublin as the shamrock. Edward Lhwyd, the celebrated antiquary, writing in December 1699 to Tancred Robinson, says, after a recent visit to Ireland: ‘Their shamrug is our common clover’ (Phil. Trans., No. 335). Threkeld, the earliest writer on the wild plants of Ireland, gives Seamar-oge (young trefoil) as the Gaelic name for Trifolium pratense album, and says expressly that this is the plant worn by the people in their hats on St. Patrick’s Day. Wade also gives Seamrog as equivalent to Trifolium repens, while the Gaelic name given for Oxalis by Threkeld is Sealgan.”
A correspondent of N. & Q. (4th S. vol. iii. p. 235) says the Trifolium filiforme is generally worn in Cork. It grows in thick clusters on the tops of walls and ditches, and is to be found in abundance in old limestone quarries in the south of Ireland. The Trifolium minus is also worn.
The following whimsical song descriptive of St. Patrick is given on Hone’s authority as one often sung by the Irish:
St. Patrick was a gentleman, and he came from decent people,
In Dublin town he built a church, and on it put a steeple;
His father was a Wollaghan, his mother an O’Grady,
His aunt she was a Kinaghan, and his wife a widow Brady.
Tooralloo, tooralloo, what a glorious man our saint was!
Tooralloo, tooralloo, O whack fal de lal, de lal, etc.
Och! Antrim hills are mighty high, and so’s the hill of Howth too;
But we all do know a mountain that is higher than them both too;
’Twas on the top of that high mount St. Patrick preach’d a sermon.
He drove the frogs into the bogs, and banished all the vermin.
Tooralloo, tooralloo, etc.