WE’VE all heard of St Patrick’s fondness for shamrocks but his love for his wife has largely been lost to history...until now.
A folklorist has now claimed that there is considerable historical evidence that St Patrick was a married man.
The day after St Patrick’s Day in the ancient Irish calendar was celebrated as 'Sheelah’s Day', but was is far less known is that Sheelah was in fact Patrick’s wife.
That’s the claim of University College Cork folklorist Shane Lehane, who says the March 17 celebrations were even extended for an additional 24 hours to commemorate the life of the little-known woman.
Mr Lehane says that celebrations of Sheelah’s life today are now confined to places beyond Ireland where Irish people moved hundreds of years ago.
"St Sheelah's Day was news to me. I thought it was amazing, as all memory of her seems to have died out here. Sheelah and Patrick, at one time, came to represent the ubiquitous Irish couple,” he said.
“Paddy and Sheelah became a byword for all Irish people. Sheelah has been forgotten altogether except in Newfoundland, Canada and in Australia.
“Irish people headed over to Newfoundland from the late 1600's and they brought over with them this tradition of Sheelah and Sheelah's Day.”
Welsh-born St Patrick preached in Ireland in the 5th century after being brought to Co. Down as a slave.
The shamrock, St Patrick's tool of choice. Picture: Getty ImagesUnlike today, back then the majority of Irish holy men were married and had families.
Lehane found evidence of Sheelah being celebrated in Ireland in historic records and newspaper accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries.
“Pre-Famine, pre-1845, if you go back to the newspapers in Ireland they talk not just about Patrick’s Day but also Sheelah's Day. So I wondered where this came from,” Mr Lehane said.
“You have Paddy’s day on March 17 and it continues on to Sheelah's day. I came across numerous references that Sheelah was thought to be Patrick's wife.”
“She was his other half. The folk tradition has no problem with such detail. The fact that we have Patrick and Sheelah together should be no surprise because that duality, that union of the male and female together, is one of the strongest images that we have in our mythology.”
An early reference to the widespread celebration of Sheelah's Day in Ireland is found in John Carr's 1806 The Stranger in Ireland.
Carr wrote that on the anniversary of St Patrick, the country people assembled in their nearest towns and villages and got very tipsy.
The passage reads: "From a spirit of gallantry, these merry devotees continue drunk the greater part of the next day, viz., the 18th of March, all in honour of Sheelagh, St. Patrick’s wife."
Sheelah has also been referenced in The Freeman’s Journal in 1785, 1811 and 1841.
Mr Lehane has also raised potential connections between Sheelah and the pre-Christian importance of the ‘Sheelah-na-Gig’.
“Sheela-na-Gig is a basic medieval carving of a woman exposing her genitalia. These images are often considered to be quite grotesque,” he said.
“They are quite shocking when you see them first. Now we look at them very much as examples of old women showing young women how to give birth. They are vernacular folk deities associated with pregnancy and birth.”
Lehane added that there is a feminist angle to Sheelah’s story – given her airbrushing from modern depictions of Ireland’s patron saint.
“What I think is very interesting is that people in Ireland in the past had no problem whatsoever accepting that Patrick had a wife.”
“The Church was very strong and during the period of Lent from Ash Wednesday right through to Easter Sunday you had major prohibitions.”
“However, folk tradition was such that Patrick afforded a special dispensation and Irish people were allowed to celebrate Patrick's day which always fell in the middle of Lent.”
“It seems to have been extended to March 18 and was a continuation of celebrations. They continued to drink on Sheelah's day and there is a sense that the women were more involved in the celebrations on the 18th. So there is a feminist angle in there.”
The UCC folklorist said it was time for Ireland to re-embrace the story of Sheelah and her importance to the story of St Patrick’s Day.
“Sheelah represented, for women in particular, a go-to person because she represented the female,” he said.
“She would have been massively important. She represents a folk personification, allied to, what can be termed, the female cosmic agency, and being such, would have played a major role in people’s everyday lives.”
“It is a pity that the day has died out. But maybe we will revive it. I am sure Fáilte Ireland would be delighted with it. I think it would be a great idea”.
