But given the St. Patrick’s Day celebration, it’s incumbent on me to consider what the saint himself would make of a secular and united Ireland. But St. Patrick organized Christianity in Ireland. Yet the realities born through the centuries would have pushed St. Patrick into accepting Irish nationalism. By the same token, St. Patrick was considered by his clerical peers a pragmatist. Alas, St. Patrick is long gone and though Church presence in Ireland is more recent, gone too from Ireland is an authoritarian Catholic Church.

Source: The Herald March 15, 2026 10:20 UTC