WELLINGTON TOWN HALL CONCERT

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 34, 9 March 1928, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOWN HALL CONCERT

St. Patrick’s Day will be celebrated by a relay of the Irish concert from the Town Hall. This is one of the musical events of the year, and the organisers on this occasion have provided a "bill of fare" right up to the standard of "the best-ever." The programme will, of course, be of a national character. It will include airs familiar to the sons and daughters of the Emerald Isle played on the great organ; choruses by the Marist: Bros. School Choir, and other delightful numbers. The contributing vocalists will include Miss Franees Morrison, of Blenheim; Mr, G. H. Andrews, of Timaru (baritone); Mr. Dan Faley (tenor); Miss Wheelan (mezzo-soprano) ; Miss Nora Greene (contralto) and Mr. William Renshaw (tenor). Mr. Leon de Mauny (violinist) and Miss Phyllis McMillan who will appear in dancing specialties, will also contribute to the evening’s enjoyment. The children’s session at 2YA will also observe St. Patrick’s Day. Auntie Gwen and Auntie Dot will have the Buckle Street Convent assisting them with the choruses appropriate to the occasion,

Ireland, St. Patrick is acclaimed with enthusiasm throughout every country where the English language is spoken, and nowhere, of course, with such affection as in Treland. The shamrock, or small white clover, is almost irreverently worn in the hat all over Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day. The popular notion is that when St. Patrick was preaching the doctrine of the Trinity he used this plant bearing three leaves upon one stem, as a symbol or illustration of the great mystery. LMOST as many countries arrogate the honour of having been the natal soil of St. Patrick, as made a similar claim with respect to Homer. Scotland, England, France and Wales, each furnish their respective pretensions; but, whatever doubts may obscure his birthplace, all agree in stating that, as his name implies, he was of a patrician family. He was born about the year 872, and when only sixteen years of age, was carried off by pirates, who sold him into slavery in Ireland where his master employed him as a swineherd on the well-known mountain of Sleamish, in the county of Antrim. Here he passed seven years, during which time he acquired a knowledge of the Irish language, and made himself acquainted with the manners, habits and customs of the people. Escaping from captivity, and after many adventures reaching the Continent, he was successively ordained deacon priest, and bishop; and then once more, with the authority of Pope Celestine, he returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel to its then heathen inhabitants. ANTAGONISTIC DRUIDS. HE principal enemies that St. Patrick found to the introduction of Christianity into Ireland were the Druidical priests of the more ancient faith, who, as might naturally be supposed, were exceedingly adverse to any innovation. These Druids, being great magicians, would have been

formidable antagonists to any one of less miraculous and saintly powers than Patrick. Their obstinate antagonism was so great, that in spite of his benevolent disposition he was compelled to curse their fertile lands, so that they became dreary bogs; to curse their rivers so that they produced no fish; to curse their very kettles, so that they with no amount of fire and patience could ever be made to boil; and, as a last resort, to curse the Druids themselves so that the earth opened and swallowed them up. A popular legend relates that the saint and his followers found themselves, one cold morning on a mounttain, without a fire to cook their breakfast, or warm their frozen limbs. Unheeding their complaints Patrick desired them to collect a pile of ice and snowballs; which having been done, he breathed upon it, and it instantaneously became a pleasant fire. The greatest of St. Patrick’s miracles was that of driving the venomous reptiles out of Ireland, and rendering the Irish soil, for ever after, so obnoxious to the serpent race that they instantaneously die on touching it. Colgan seriously relates that St. Patrick accomplished this feat by beating a drum, which he struck with such fervour that he knocked a hole in it, thereby endangering the success of the miracle. But an angel appearing mended the drum; and the patched instrument was long exhibited as a holy relic. SNAKE SUPERSTITIONS, N 1881, Mr. James Cleland, an Irish gentleman, being curious to ascertain whether the climate or soil of Ireland was naturally destructive to the serpent tribe, purchased half a dozen of the common harmless English snake (natrix torquata), in Covent Garden Market in London. Bringing them to Ireland, he turned them out in his garden at Rath-gael, in the county of Down; and in a week afterwards, one of them was killed at Milecross, about three miles distant. The persons into whose

hands this strange monster fell, had not the slightest suspicion that it was a snake, but considering it a curious kind of eel, they took it to Dr. J. L. Drummond, a _ celebrated Irish naturalist, who at once pronounced the animal to be a reptile and not a fish. The idea of a "rale living sarpint" having been killed within a short distance of the very burialplace of St. Patrick, caused an extraordinary sensation of alarm among the country people. The most absurd rumours were freely circulated, and credited. One far-seeing clergyman preached a sermon, in which he cited this unfortunate snake as a token of the immediate commencement of the millennium; while another saw in it a type of the approach of the cholera morbus. Old prophecies were raked up, and all parties and sects, for once, united in believing that the snake foreshadowed "the beginning of the end," though they very widely differed as to what that end was to be. Some more practically minded persons, however, subscribed a considerable sum of money, which they offered in rewards for the destruction of any other snakes that might be found in the district. And three more of the snakes were not long afterwards killed, within a few miles of the garden where they were liberated. The ramaining two snakes were never very clearly accounted for; but no doubt they also fell victims to the reward. On the Galtee or Gaultie Mountains, situated between the counties of Cork and Tipperary, there were seven lakes, in one of which, called Lough Dilveen, it is said Saint Patrick, when banishing the snakes and toads from Ireland, chained a monster serpent, telling him to remain there till Monday. T. Patrick is commonly stated to have died at Saul on March 17, 493, in the one hundred and twentyfirst year of his age. As the birthplace of St. Patrick has been disputed, so has that of his burial. But the general evidence indicates that he was buried at Downpatrick, and that the remains of St. Columb and St. Bridget were laid beside him.