Anyone else having fun learning about Ireland today?

Question

Happy St. Patrick's Day... I'm part Irish so we took the opportunity today to learn a little about the Emerald Isle. Anyone else?

-We looked Ireland up on a map and measured how far it is from where we live here in America, converting inches to miles

-looked up Ireland on google earth, talked about why it's called the Emerald Isle

- We kept up the Leprechaun Watch web cam all day:http://www.irelandseye.com/leprechaun/lwatchnj.htm

(note- we did not see any)

-colored an Irish flag

-made leprechaun hats, and a leprechaun craft coloring page

-did a creative writing exercise "if I had a pot of gold"

-discussed Saint Patrick, the historical figure and the legends

-discussed the origins of the holiday

-listened to Irish/Celtic music

-read some Celtic mythology

-cooked corned beef and cabbage and potatoes (and learned that this is not a traditional Irish dish, but American-Irish)

Answer 1

Haha, nope. We watched the longest most boring movie. Even if im Irish XD

Answer 2

firebird:  good point, I forgot about that! It's been too long since Cath school!

Answer 3

Liz's answer is close but actually he killed 100s of Druids and their families to clear Ireland for the Catholic Church. So the Church later made a Saint of this mass murderer. Nice story huh.

Answer 4

what grade are you in? coloring and making hats is 2nd grade but cooking and google maps is more 6th grade.......I havent started learning about anything irish.

Answer 5

I'm in the middle of a creative writng exercise myself. "The Leprechaun Who Came to Stay" A chance for me to do a bit of research on irish myths and apply them to my writing. I plan to illustrate it as well and possibly read it at the library or the elementary school I volunteer at.

Answer 6

The most interesting fact is that it's NOT St. Patrick's day. No, not kidding. Holy week takes precedence and any saint's day that falls within Holy week just isn't on the calender of feast days that year. There IS an allowance in the Republic of Ireland to move it so this year it was on Saturday 15th.

Answer 7

The first amazing fact about St. Patrick was that he wasn’t Irish and his name wasn’t even Patrick!

When he was born in ancient Britain, his name was Maewyn Succat. When he was 16, he was kidnapped by pirates, taken across the sea to Ireland and sold as a slave. Patrick escaped after six years and went to a monastery to become a Roman Catholic priest. When Patrick was about 60 years old, he returned to Ireland as a missionary and became the country's second bishop. St. Patrick established schools, churches and monasteries throughout Ireland.

St. Patrick is surrounded by legends. A popular one is that he gave a sermon so powerful that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Since no snakes are native to Ireland, it probably symbolizes the pagans who either converted to Christianity or were run out of Ireland. Patrick used the three-leafed shamrocks to explain certain church teachings. The shamrock became the symbol of St. Patrick's Day.

You should also learn some of the Irish saying.....Ask me if you would like to know some.