St.Patrick celebrated every 17th March was the Patron Saint Of Nigeria!
As Americans prepare to observe St. Patrick's Day with pub crawls,
parades, corned beef, and green clothing, beer and bagels, let's not
forget about that country for which Patrick is a patron saint.
Irish
bishops in Nigeria named St. Patrick, who is said to have died on March
17 in the year 461, as the country's patron in 1961, the same year
Ireland opened its embassy in Lagos. The Irish actually have a long
history in the Nigeria: Irish nationalist Roger Casement — executed in
Dublin in 1916 for his role in the Irish rebels' Easter Rising — served
as a British consular officer in Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria,
during the 1890s. Casement's interest in and sympathy for Africans under
colonial rule was unusual for a European in the Victorian era, and
likely helped shape his views on social justice.
A statue of St. Patrick at Croagh Patrick mountain, a Catholic pilgrimage site in Ireland.
John Heeneman/dpa/Corbis
In the early
1920s, Irish priests of the Order of the Holy Ghost established their
mission in southern Nigeria. Later St. Patrick's Society for Foreign
Missions, dedicated on March 17, 1932, became one of many Catholic
groups in Nigeria providing education both religious and secular.
These
days Catholics in the country number some 20 million, and Nigerian
seminaries send their ordinates all over the world to serve as priests.
In fact, since numbers of clergy in Ireland have long been in decline,
Nigerian priests have recently been assigned to churches there.
Though
St. Patrick's Day is not an official public holiday in Nigeria, plenty
of Guinness stout will be consumed anyway. It's the second most popular
beer in the country, brewed with sorghum or maize instead of the
European recipe's barley, and packs a 7.5 percent alcohol content.
And
"Irish diplomats of course celebrate St. Patrick's Day," says Eoghan
McSwiney, deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja.
"The Embassy organizes high-profile St. Patrick's Day celebrations in
the capital Abuja, and in Lagos, as well in Accra, Ghana. We are joined
by friends and colleagues from the diplomatic corps and from the highest
levels of the Nigerian public and private sector."
There is
one big difference from American St. Patrick's Day celebrations, though,
and it's not green bagels. In Nigeria, says McSwiney, "We don't
organize a parade."
By Maggie Zackowitz
(NPR.org)
Glance through the pictures to see how how St. Patrick's Day is celebrated around the world!!!
Dublin's St Patrick's day parade is one of the largest in the world
The Chicago River is dyed green during St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Chicago
Michael Flatley, the Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall and his wife and Irish
Minister Pat Rabbittee TD at the start of the Mayor of London's St
Patrick's Day parade
Some spectators this year not only wore green, but also donned moustaches
Credit:PETER MUHLY/AFP
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge strokes the regimental mascot Irish
wolfhound as she attends St Patrick's Day parade with the 1st Battalion
Irish Guards in Mons Barracks in Aldershot
Credit:ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images
After the ceremony, the Duke of Cambridge enjoyed a traditional pint of Guinness in the mess
The Chicago River is dyed green during St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Chicago
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