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Irish Mythology Podcast

Marta 11, 2021

Episode 14

St. Patrick’s Day Special: Patrick versus Cromm Cruach

Thank you for listening to this episode!

Here you’ll find our notes, links to research and some personal highlights from your hosts. 

Welcome | fáilte 

In this episode we hear about how St. Patrick confronts a pagan idol whose followers are resisting the forward march of Christianity.  This deity, Cromm Cruach isn’t for going meekly into the night and makes a spirited defence of his place on the landscape and those who follow him.

We ask:

• Why was Patrick determined to destroy Cromm Cruach?
• Who worshipped Cromm Cruach according to textual sources?
• Was Cromm Cruach even a deity or did Christian writers make him up?
• Why was Patrick at odds with King  Lóegaire Mac Neill?
• How did early Irish Christianity interact with native polytheistic paganism?
• How did people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the past. 
• St. Patrick’s Day, Paddy’s Day or Patty’s Day?

Patrick has had a lot of success spreading the word of God in Ireland, but one native deity and his followers are not going without a fight. Who will win this epic confrontation? Patrick versus Crom Cruach; This time it’s biblical!

We talk Patrick, Cromm Cruach, hagiography, human sacrifice, Lóegaire mac Néill, and the different ways Christianity and native Irish Paganism interacted. We also make a bit of time to talk old St. Patrick’s Day customs.

Resources

• Jocelyn of Furness’s Life of Patrick
• The Tripartite Life of Patrick Ch. 2  
• Mag Slecht (The Metrical Dindshenchas)
• St. Patrick’s Breastplate aka St. Patrick’s Hymn
• Ireland’s Immortals, A History of the Gods of Irish Myth – Mark Williams
• Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland’s Patron Saint – Roy Flechner
• Exodus 20: 2-7 (The Bible)
• Psalm 23 (The Bible)
• Exodus 29 (The Bible)
• Psalm 140 (The Bible)
• St. Patrick’s day crosses – Ye are all too smart (Duchas)
• Festival Customs – Mass in Ballyhaunis (Duchas)

credits

Written, presented and produced  by Marcas Ó hUiscín and Stephanie Ní Thiarnaigh. 

Music – Celtic Warrior by Damiano Baldoni (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 public licence 

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

All sounds cc licence from freesound.org