It’s about as far away as we can get from St Patrick’s Day, so it’s probably ok to talk about Snakes in Ireland…

Ah yes – the old fable that he banished all the Snakes out of the land…

That’s enough of the ‘old fable’ – there’s no doubt about it: there are no Snakes in Ireland at all, so it must be true that St Patrick sent them packing! Although I was a bit alarmed when, out walking in the Mayo hills a while ago, I came across this…

A Slow-worm? Anguis Fragilis… How does that fit into the St Patrick story?

Well, there shouldn’t be any Slow-worms here really – as the Saint expelled all the Reptiles and Lizards – and that’s a Lizard. But evidently someone introduced them into County Clare illegally back in the twentieth century, and they’ve survived there. (Frogs were also introduced, incidentally, as a…