Were there snakes in Ireland when St. Patrick returned after all those years?
There haven’t been any snakes in Ireland since at least the beginning of the last Ice Age and there probably never were. That’s a matter of climate (it’s too cold for ’em) and the fact that Ireland is an island and snakes are lousy swimmers. St. Paddy may have worked miracles but banishing non-existent reptiles wasn’t one of ’em. The myth is most likely a metaphor for Christianizing the people and driving the pagan religions out of Ireland. This applies, of course, only to the reptilian variety of snakes. The warm blooded kind mostly emigrated to Amerikay where they became politicians. Sources: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/ReptilesAmphibians/NewsEvents/irelandsnakes.cfm http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/about.
