Ireland is the 'Emerald Isle'. The deep green of the rolling Irish countryside has to be seen to be believed.
And green is te colour of the national emblem - the humble shamrock, which Irishmen, from Dublin to Chicago, wear proudly in their buttonholes on St Patrick's day (March 17th).
St Patrick was actually a Scotsman. His father was a wealthy British magistrate under the Romans in the 4th century.
As a boy, Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and carried over the sea. They sold him as a slave to a Northern Irish chieftain.
Patrick looked after his master's cattle on the mountains and in the wood. Six cold, wet winters of slavery concentrated his mind on religious matters. He dreamed of escape and of preaching Christianity to the heathens.
He made his way to France, where he became the pupil of St Martin of Tours - the soldier saint who gave half his jewelled cloak to a beggar. Then, at the age of thirty, he returned to Ireland as a missionary.
Many legends grew up around St Patrick. One is that he drove all the smakes from Ireland. Another is that he explained the Trinity by comparing it to the three leaves of the shamrock.
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