The closest we come is youngster Shane Ferguson, born in Londonderry ... NORTHERN Ireland.
(* Since this article was put on line a number of Toon fans have suggested Irish international Leon Best - but he was born and raised in NOTTINGHAM)
So ... to all Irish ... HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!
So who is St Patrick?
Well he was not born in Ireland at all, and one account says he could have come from Cumbria, although no-one knows exactly.
Patrick takes the credit for banishing snakes from the Ireland, though all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place.
Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a 3-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian belief of 'three divine persons in the one God'.
Some Irish legends claim he carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on.
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