Happy St. Patrick's Day. Today we're going to learn about how St. Patrick banished the snakes from

Ireland, possibly, maybe. This is the first ever species bonus episode, and with these, I hope to

explore the animal-related avenues of inquiry that are too far off the main road for our normal

species-specific Sunday episodes.

These episodes are going to be less regular than our main show, and I plan to release them

relatively randomly. These episodes are also going to be shorter and stylistically tighter than

our main shows, but I want the spirit to stay the same.

Loving animals, thinking about them, learning about them, and learning through them.

I hope you enjoy.

Ah, St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, the patron saint of Ireland, the 5th century Christian missionary, who is largely credited with bringing Christianity to the people living there.

This persists despite evidence of earlier Christianity in Ireland.

St. Patrick was a primate in two ways.

Firstly, he was the chief bishop of Ireland, and a regional bishop such as this is also known as a primate.

Fun fact.

And, of course, he was a mammal in the primate order.

Anyway, Patrick actually wasn't Irish.

He wasn't Irish by birth, at least.

He actually came to Ireland from Britain as a victim of kidnapping.

Some Irish pirates captured him when he was 16 years old and sailed him back to their country.

They gave him to some Irish slave owners, and poor Patrick was forced to take care of his master's farm animals for six long years.

Patrick escaped, hitched a ride on a boat to Britain, and later on decided to return to Ireland and bring some serious Christianity to the land of his enslavement. Anyway, fast forward a bit.

According to legend, St. Patrick climbed up, Croke Patrick, a hill that was not named after him when he first climbed it, but it has been

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