Why There Are No Snakes in Ireland
So for today, Saint Patrick's Day, named after the glorified soul who legend says banished all snakes from Ireland, I thought it would be appropriate for my readers to enjoy another entry in my series of Snakes & Women. Here for your pleasure is a pretty young woman wearing the green and warming the snake.
For those of my readers who may not know, snakes can be found on every continent (with one exception: Antarctica) and on almost all land masses with a few exceptions, one notable: Ireland. That's right, there are indeed no snakes on Ireland; however it is a myth that it is the result of the efforts of Saint Patrick - the fact is, snakes were never there to begin with (1).
That Saint Paddy rid Ireland of snakes is only one myth that many Christians believe in. Another widespread myth, even among Jews, is that Islam is a religion. Just as ignorance of Glacial and Pleistocene geology led many to believe in the Saint Patrick/Snake myth, so too ignorance of the contents of the Qur'an and the deeds of Mohammed has led many infidels to mistakenly believe that Islam is a religion - see my article Why So Many People Mistakenly Believe that Islam is a Religion where I explained that those who misunderstand Islam are indeed simply misinformed, ignorant, badly educated, naive and plain stupid.
ENDNOTES
(1):
National Geographic News, Snakeless in Ireland: Blame Ice Age, Not St. Patrick
During St. Patrick's Day next week, most revelers won't remember the patron saint of Ireland for his role as a snake killer.
But legend holds that the Christian missionary rid the slithering reptiles from Ireland's shores as he converted its peoples from paganism during the fifth century A.D.
St. Patrick supposedly chased the snakes into the sea after they began attacking him during a 40-day fast he undertook on top of a hill.
An unlikely tale, perhaps—yet Ireland is unusual for its absence of native snakes.
It's one of only a handful of places worldwide—including New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica—where Indiana Jones and other snake-averse humans can visit without fear.
But St. Patrick had nothing to do with Ireland's snake-free status, scientists say.
As keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, Nigel Monaghan has trawled through vast collections of fossil and other records of Irish animals. "At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish," Monaghan said.
So what did happen?
Most scientists point to the most recent ice age, which kept the island too cold for reptiles until it ended 10,000 years ago. After the ice age, surrounding seas may have kept snakes from colonizing the Emerald Isle.
