Like many Saint’s days, St Patrick’s began as a day that you went to church and contemplated God. Pubs were actually closed, if you can believe it! With this in mind, it’s pretty crazy to think that today thirteen million pints of ‘the black stuff’ — i.e. Guinness — are consumed across the world on the 17th of March!

So how did we get here? And is it possible that psychedelics played a part in the forging of this most rowdy of holidays?

The History of St Patrick’s Day

First things first, turns out St Patrick was not Irish! Or called Patrick! The story goes that Maewyn Succat was born in A.D. 390 in Britain, to a wealthy family. However, at age 16 Maewyn was kidnapped and spirited away to Ireland. There he was enslaved and worked tending to sheep for several years. During this time he became deeply religious, and after a while (in classic saintly style) he began to hear the voice of God, imploring him to escape to Britain. He duly did, smuggling himself onto a ship.

However, when he got back to his family home, the voice told him he must return to Ireland. And so, ordained as a priest and with the new alias Patricius (later Patrick) based on the Latin word patr — meaning ‘father’, he returned to spread Christianity across the Emerald Isle.

Unsurprisingly, the Pagan Irish lords were not keen on this. So, St Patrick was regularly beaten and imprisoned, living in poverty and hardship. He did however, preach the gospel, teach, and build the first Christian churches across Ireland.

He died in 461 on the 17th of March, and since then many myths and legends about his achievements have grown. From driving the snakes from Ireland (though IRL snakes never were native to Ireland in the first place), to baptising hundreds of people in a day, to raising 33 people from the dead (!) Paddy had enough miracles to his name to achieve sainthood. It is said that the shamrock became the symbol of Ireland because St Patrick used it to describe the Holy Trinity, with each leaf representing the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

The First Parade

For centuries the 17th of March was observed by the Irish as a religious holiday, visiting church in the morning and then merrymaking with food and drink in the afternoon. However, the first official St. Patrick’s day parade actually occurred in 1601 in a Spanish settlement in America! Surviving documents show that the priest presiding over the community was Irish — and so he wished to observe the celebration. Within a few decades it was established as a feast day, becoming a date of great importance to a growing population of Irish immigrants suffering fresh persecution in their new American home. A few hundred years later, it has grown into the luminous green behemoth we know and love today!

Druids And Pookies

Ok so far, so sober.  But Ireland has a rich history of natural psychedelic use, dating back to the ancient times of the Druids. Druids were the Celtic equivalent of ‘priests’ who specialized in spirituality, philosophy and natural magic. 

The psychedelic Fly Agaric (Amanita Muscaria) mushroom favoured by the Celts features heavily in Irish iconography, and stories of spirits, fairies and ‘little people’ abound  in Irish culture. In fact the slang for magic mushrooms is the same as the word for fairies — ‘pookies’. Now, that can’t be a coincidence can it?

How Irish Mythology Uses Psychedelic ‘Codes’

So, it seems there always did exist a deep psychedelic pulse in Ireland. However, in ancient mythology the use of psychedelics like magic mushrooms are often shrouded in metaphor — i.e. any references to drugs are in ‘code’ — kinda like today to be honest! Many Irish legends feature a person gaining great knowledge or power from chowing down on some kind of magic ‘edible’. The classic Irish legend ‘The Salmon of Knowledge’ is a prime example of this. 

The story goes that the Druid Finnegas long sought the legendary ‘salmon of knowledge’. The salmon had become magical by eating the ‘nuts of knowledge’ — hazelnuts imbued with the secrets of the world. The person who eats this salmon will then know them too. Once he finally catches it, his young assistant Finn McCool (Fion Mac Cumhail), tasked with cooking the salmon, is scalded by the fat from the sizzling fish.

Instinctively sucking on his burning thumb, Finn accidentally gains all the knowledge that his master had sought. Forever more, when he puts his thumb to his lips, ‘unknown things’ come to him. 

Not only does this sound rather like the spiritual insight brought on by a shroom trip, it turns out that there are many crossovers between the ancient Irish words for ‘nut’ and ‘mushroom’. Could it be as simple as a translational difference, totally changing the subtext of a legend?

And not only that — the head of the Liberty Cap mushroom is often described as nut-like, as well as thumb-like… hmmm so young Finn puts his ‘thumb’ to his mouth to gain insight, eh? Interesting…

“Red Flesh Of A Dog, Pig Or Cat“

There are many traditional tales in a similar vein. In numerous ancient rituals, including the Imbas Forosnai, participants were told to chew the ‘red flesh of a dog, pig or cat’ . Many believe this to be code for the scarlet fleshy cap of the Fly Agaric. This is supported by what was said to happen next…

So, the Imbas Forosnai was a knowledge-seeking ritual in which, after eating the ‘red flesh’, the participant placed their hands over their eyes and chanted. Calling out to their ancestors, they entered a trance that would last 3 days. They were watched over in the darkness by fellow Druids who were experienced in these matters — sounds rather like a shaman or even a trip sitter, hey?

In fact, this sacred ritual is not so different from Terence McKenna’s ‘heroic dose’, which goes as follows:

Take 5 grams and sit in a dark room, with no distractions, and trip your way to enlightenment. 

Some things never change I guess… 

It is said that a lot of these ‘code-words’ for psychedelics were actually introduced to shroud the ancient knowledge of the Celts from the Christians who overthrew them. 

Celebrate St Patrick’s Day The Psychedelic Way!

We don’t think St Patrick would begrudge you however, from celebrating his day the way the ancient Irish might have — with a psychedelic trip from a shroom, or that other ‘nut-of-knowlege’ — the magic truffle. So this St Patrick’s Day why not expand your mind like Finn McCool? And remember:

“…the whole world is Irish on the Seventeenth o’ March!“

T. A Daly