97 Fun Facts About St. Patrick's Day Trivia for Kids

On which date is St. Patrick's Day celebrated?

St. Patrick's Day is March 17, the date on which Saint Patrick is traditionally said to have died in the year 461.

Which two other saints share the title of patron saint of Ireland with Patrick?

Brigid and Columba join Patrick as Ireland's patron saints; Brigid of Kildare founded a famous monastery there, and Columba, also called Colmcille, founded the monastery on Iona in 563.

Where was Saint Patrick actually born?

Patrick was born in Britain when it was a Roman province, in the late 300s or early 400s; his father Calpurnius was a deacon and a town official there.

How did the teenage Patrick first end up in Ireland?

Irish pirates captured Patrick from his family's home when he was about sixteen and carried him across the sea to be sold as a slave; he escaped years later on a ship.

How many years was Patrick held as a slave in Ireland before he escaped?

Patrick spent six years as a slave in Ireland before escaping; his Confessio says he prayed up to a hundred times a day and fled after a dream told him a ship was waiting.

Irish farmers planted potatoes after St. Patrick's Day expecting what to improve?

Tradition held that the weather would improve once St. Patrick's Day had passed, so Irish farmers waited until after the feast to plant their potatoes for the year.

According to legend, what did Saint Patrick use the shamrock to explain?

Legend says Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, one God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the story was first recorded in writing in 1726.

Which creatures did Saint Patrick supposedly chase out of Ireland?

Legend says Saint Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland; the tale first appears in a life of the saint written by the monk Jocelin of Furness in the 1180s.

Why is the snake story about Saint Patrick definitely a legend?

Ireland never had any snakes after the Ice Age: rising seas cut the island off before they could spread north, and the Roman writer Solinus remarked on their absence in the third century.

What colour do people wear on St. Patrick's Day?

People wear green on St. Patrick's Day, the colour of the shamrock and of Irish identity; an American tradition says anyone not wearing green gets pinched.

What tiny mischievous creature from Irish folklore is often shown as a shoemaker guarding a pot of gold?

A leprechaun is the Irish fairy shoemaker of folklore; the word comes from the Irish leipreachán, and tales say he hides his gold and vanishes the moment you look away.

In Irish folklore, where is the little shoemaker's pot of gold supposed to be hidden?

Good luck finding it: the end of a rainbow moves every time you do.

Which US city dyes its river bright green every year for St. Patrick's Day?

Chicago first dyed its river green for St. Patrick's Day in 1962, and the secret orange powder turns bright green as it hits the water.

St. Patrick's Day parades began on which continent, long before Ireland held any?

The first St. Patrick's Day parades were held in North America: Irish soldiers marched through New York City in 1762, well over a century before Ireland held one.

Which Irish city held the very first St. Patrick's Day parade in Ireland?

Waterford staged Ireland's first St. Patrick's Day parade in the early 1900s; Dublin did not hold an official state-sponsored parade until 1931.

What does the Irish greeting 'céad míle fáilte', seen on signs, mean?

Céad míle fáilte means 'a hundred thousand welcomes': céad is hundred, míle is thousand and fáilte is welcome, which is why the phrase greets visitors at Irish airports and shops.

Which Caribbean island counts St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday?

Montserrat was settled by Irish Catholics in the 1600s and keeps St. Patrick's Day as a public holiday; the day also remembers a slave uprising planned for the feast in 1768.

Which two landmarks launched Tourism Ireland's Global Greening for St. Patrick's Day in 2010?

The Sydney Opera House and Auckland's Sky Tower were the first two sites lit green for Tourism Ireland's Global Greening in 2010; hundreds of landmarks worldwide later joined.

What is Saint Patrick's Day called in the Irish language?

Lá Fhéile Pádraig is the Irish name for the day; lá means day and Pádraig is Patrick, and the traditional greeting is Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh.

What is Seachtain na Gaeilge, held in Ireland in the fortnight before St. Patrick's Day?

Seachtain na Gaeilge is Irish Language Week, a celebration of the Irish language that runs from the start of March up to St. Patrick's Day, with events in schools and communities.

In which Irish county is Saint Patrick said to be buried?

Saint Patrick is said to be buried at Down Cathedral in County Down, where a granite slab carved with the name Patric has marked the traditional grave since 1900.

What is Ireland's national symbol, seen on its coins and coat of arms?

A harp is Ireland's official emblem, shown on its euro coins and the state coat of arms; the harp on the royal arms of the United Kingdom also stands for Ireland.

Botanically speaking, what makes a four-leaf clover special?

About one in every 5,000 clovers has four leaves, according to a huge European survey.

Roughly how many ordinary clovers would you have to search to find one four-leaf clover?

A survey of millions of clovers found one four-leaf clover for roughly every 5,000 ordinary ones, twice as common as the old saying of one in 10,000.

What is a person supposed to gain by kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland?

Kissing the Blarney Stone is said to give the gift of the gab, meaning great skill at talking; the stone is set high in the battlements of Blarney Castle, built in 1446.

The 'drowning the shamrock' custom ends St. Patrick's Day by putting a shamrock where?

The cup is filled up, the shamrock is either swallowed or tossed over the shoulder for luck.

Which river flows through the centre of Dublin?

The Liffey flows through the centre of Dublin and out into Dublin Bay; it rises in the Wicklow Mountains and is crossed in the city by O'Connell Bridge.

The Irish stepdancing show that became a worldwide hit in 1994 was called what?

Riverdance began as a seven-minute interval act at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, starring Michael Flatley and Jean Butler, before growing into a full stage show.

Which Canadian province gives its government workers the day off for St. Patrick's Day?

Newfoundland and Labrador treats St. Patrick's Day as a provincial government holiday; Irish fishermen settled the island from the 1700s and roughly one in five residents claims Irish roots.

What did astronaut Chris Hadfield do for St. Patrick's Day 2013 aboard the ISS?

Chris Hadfield wore green and sang Danny Boy aboard the space station on St. Patrick's Day 2013, and he posted a photo of Dublin at night taken from orbit.

Which traditional Irish dish became corned beef in Irish-American kitchens?

Bacon and cabbage is the traditional Irish dinner of boiled pork with cabbage and potatoes; Irish immigrants in New York swapped the bacon for cheaper corned beef.

How long a lease did Arthur Guinness sign on his Dublin brewery in 1759?

Arthur Guinness signed a lease of 9,000 years on the St. James's Gate site in Dublin in 1759, agreeing to pay 45 pounds a year in rent.

Which nickname for Ireland comes from how green the island is?

The Emerald Isle, a nickname for Ireland's green landscape, was coined by the Belfast poet William Drennan in his 1795 poem When Erin First Rose.

How many leaves does a shamrock have?

A shamrock has three leaves; several clover species are sold as the shamrock, and botanists have long disagreed over which one is the true plant.

What is a céilí, part of many St. Patrick's Day celebrations?

A céilí, pronounced roughly KAY-lee, is a traditional Irish music and dance gathering where set dances are called out and everyone joins in; the word originally meant a social visit.

St. Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland in which year?

St. Patrick's Day became an Irish public holiday in 1903 under the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act, a law pushed through the UK Parliament by the Irish MP James O'Mara.

How many names is Saint Patrick said to have had over his life, according to an old biography?

Four names: the Tripartite Life of Patrick calls him Sochet as a boy, Cothriche as a slave, Mauonius as a student and Patrick as a bishop.

Besides Ireland, Saint Patrick is also the patron saint of which African country?

Saint Patrick is a patron saint of Nigeria, a link forged by the Irish missionary priests who ran many of the country's Catholic schools and missions in the 20th century.

Before the 1900s, what colour were leprechauns usually said to wear?

One 1831 description gives the little fellow a red square-cut coat laced with gold and a cocked hat; the all-green look came much later.

Lucky the Leprechaun is the mascot of which basketball team?

Lucky the Leprechaun is the Boston Celtics mascot and appears on the team's logo, a nod to Boston's large Irish-American community; the Celtics were founded in 1946.

Which breakfast cereal's mascot is a leprechaun created by General Mills?

Lucky Charms, launched by General Mills in 1964, has the leprechaun Lucky as its mascot, the character who guards the cereal's marshmallow charms from children in its adverts.

What did astronaut Catherine Coleman play aboard the space station on St. Patrick's Day 2011?

The hundred-year-old flute belonged to Matt Molloy of The Chieftains, and her weightless performance ended up on the band's album Voice of Ages.

Which US president was the first to be sent a box of shamrocks from Ireland, in 1952?

Harry S. Truman received the first box of shamrocks in 1952, sent by Ireland's ambassador John Hearne; the gift later grew into a yearly White House visit by the Irish Taoiseach.

Until the early 1900s, Irish children wore a St. Patrick's Day cross made from what?

The St. Patrick's Day cross was cut from paper, then covered with silk or ribbon of different colours with a rosette of green silk in the middle; the custom faded out in the early 1900s.

Which colour did the Order of St Patrick adopt in 1783, linking it to the saint for a time?

Blue was the colour of the Order of St Patrick, founded in 1783, and 'St. Patrick's blue' appears on old Irish coats of arms; the United Irishmen's colour replaced it in the 1790s.

Legend says Patrick fasted on top of a mountain in County Mayo for how many days?

Legend says Patrick fasted for forty days on the summit of Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, where pilgrims climb to a small chapel built on the top in 1905.

How long was the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade, once held in Dripsey, Ireland?

Dripsey's parade ran about 23 metres, between the village's two pubs, and was billed as the world's shortest; it began in 1999 and ended after one of the pubs closed.

What job did young Patrick do during his years as a slave in Ireland?

Patrick worked as a shepherd, minding flocks in the hills; he later wrote that those lonely years of slavery were when he turned to prayer and found his faith.

Patrick's two surviving pieces of writing are in which language?

Patrick's Confessio and his Letter to Coroticus are both written in Latin, the language of the church and of schooling in the Roman province where he grew up.

What did the dream letter called 'The Voice of the Irish' ask Patrick to do?

The letter begged Patrick to return and walk among them once more; he wrote in his Confessio that the dream persuaded him to go back to the island of his slavery.

According to legend, Patrick's first church in Ireland was held in what kind of building?

Patrick's first church was a barn given by the local chieftain Dichu; the place is called Saul, from the Irish sabhall, meaning barn, and a memorial church was built there in 1932.

Which Irish city has two cathedrals that are both named after Saint Patrick?

Armagh has a Church of Ireland and a Catholic cathedral, both dedicated to Saint Patrick; tradition says he founded his chief church there in 445, making it Ireland's ecclesiastical capital.

In legend, a chieftain named Dáire gave Patrick a hill for a church plus a great bronze what?

Dáire gave Patrick a bronze cauldron along with a hill for his church; in Muirchú's tale Patrick's plain thanks, 'grazacham', so puzzled the chieftain that he took the gift back before giving it again.

Legend says Patrick defied the High King by lighting an Easter fire on which hill?

Patrick lit his Easter fire on the Hill of Slane, in sight of Tara where High King Laoghaire had banned all other fires; his druids warned the blaze would never be put out.

What is the local nickname for Croagh Patrick, the holy mountain in County Mayo?

Reek is an old Irish-English word for a rick or stack, which fits its pointed pyramid shape above Clew Bay.

Thousands of pilgrims climb Croagh Patrick together on which day each year?

The pilgrimage on the last Sunday in July draws thousands up Croagh Patrick; some climb barefoot, a penance tradition going back at least to the Middle Ages.

On Croagh Patrick, legend says Patrick rang his bell to drive away what?

A flock of black birds, said to be demons, swarmed Patrick at the end of his fast; he rang and hurled his bell until they fled into a hollow named Lugnademon, the hollow of the demons.

Which hill in County Antrim is said to be where the enslaved young Patrick worked?

Slemish, the plug of an extinct volcano near Ballymena, is where tradition places Patrick's years of slavery, and a pilgrimage walk to its top takes place on the saint's day.

Medieval pilgrims believed a cave on Station Island in Donegal was the entrance to what?

The cave on Station Island was believed to be the entrance to Purgatory, shown to Saint Patrick; the site, called St Patrick's Purgatory, was the only Irish place marked on Martin Behaim's 1492 globe.

What does seamróg, the Irish word behind 'shamrock', mean?

Seamróg means young clover, from seamair, clover, and the ending óg, young or small; a botanical survey found most Irish people pick lesser clover as their shamrock.

Which airline uses a shamrock logo and the radio call sign 'SHAMROCK'?

Aer Lingus, Ireland's flag carrier founded in 1936, paints a shamrock on every tail fin, and its pilots identify each flight to air traffic control as 'Shamrock' plus the flight number.

English writers in the 1500s wrongly claimed the Irish did what with shamrocks?

They had mixed up seamróg with seamsóg, the Irish word for wood sorrel, a sour plant that people really did nibble.

The record-setting clover found in Japan in 2023 had how many leaflets?

The 2023 clover had 63 leaflets; its grower bred it from plants that already produced extra leaflets, beating the 56-leaf clover found in Japan in 2009.

Which rocket company sews a four-leaf clover onto every mission patch?

SpaceX puts a four-leaf clover on its mission patches, a tradition that began with the first successful Falcon 1 launch in September 2008, the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit.

Which youth group's emblem is a green four-leaf clover with a white letter on each leaf?

4-H, the youth organisation, uses a green four-leaf clover with a white H on each leaf for head, heart, hands and health; the emblem dates from the early 1900s.

In one tradition, a four-leaf clover's leaves stand for hope, faith, love and what?

The fourth leaf stands for luck, after hope, faith and love; another old belief said a four-leaf clover let its finder see fairies.

In the oldest leprechaun story, King Fergus wakes to find tiny creatures dragging him where?

Tiny lúchorpáin try to drag the sleeping King Fergus mac Léti into the sea; he seizes them and wins the power to travel under water, in the earliest leprechaun tale, from the 700s.

Which American university's 'Fighting Irish' teams have a leprechaun mascot?

Notre Dame's Fighting Irish teams have a leprechaun mascot, played by a student in a green suit and hat; the leprechaun became the official mascot in 1965.

Which 1959 Disney film features a leprechaun king who grants three wishes?

Darby O'Gill and the Little People, released by Disney in 1959, has King Brian of the leprechauns grant Darby his wishes; a young Sean Connery plays the romantic lead.

What is the white stripe in the middle of Ireland's flag meant to stand for?

The white stripe stands for peace between green and orange, the island's Gaelic Catholic and Protestant traditions; Thomas Francis Meagher presented the tricolour in 1848.

Which African country's flag looks like Ireland's flipped back to front?

Ivory Coast's flag is orange, white and green, Ireland's colours in reverse order; it was adopted in 1959, a year before independence from France, with orange standing for the northern savanna.

Which royal presented shamrocks to the Irish Guards on St. Patrick's Day 2012?

Princess Catherine, then Duchess of Cambridge, presented sprigs of shamrock to the Irish Guards at Aldershot on St. Patrick's Day 2012, and she repeated the duty most years afterwards.

Which giant dog breed is the official mascot of the Irish Guards regiment?

The Irish Wolfhound has been the Irish Guards' mascot since 1902; the Roman consul Symmachus wrote in the year 391 of seven huge Irish hounds that all Rome viewed with wonder.

On a Claddagh ring, the heart means love, the hands friendship, and the crown what?

The crown stands for loyalty; legend credits the design to Richard Joyce, a silversmith who learned the craft while enslaved in Algiers in the 1600s and made the ring for his sweetheart.

The Claddagh ring takes its name from a fishing village in which Irish county?

The Claddagh is an old fishing village just outside the walls of Galway city, where the rings were made from about 1700; the name 'Claddagh ring' only caught on in the 1830s.

What must visitors do to kiss the Blarney Stone?

Visitors lie on their backs and lean backwards over a ledge, gripping iron rails, to kiss the stone; before the rails were added, helpers held kissers by the ankles over the drop.

Blarney Castle, home of the famous stone, is just outside which Irish city?

Blarney Castle stands about 8 kilometres north-west of Cork city; a 2014 University of Glasgow study found the stone is local limestone, not a piece of Scotland's Stone of Scone.

In competitive Irish stepdancing, where must dancers keep their arms?

Competitive Irish stepdancers keep their arms straight at their sides; one theory says the style began because travelling dance masters taught on tabletops and barrel tops with no room to swing the arms.

What are the soft lace-up shoes worn by girls in Irish dancing called?

Ghillies are the soft black leather lace-up shoes worn by girls in Irish dancing; boys wear 'reel shoes' with a hard heel instead, giving their soft-shoe steps audible clicks.

An Irish dancing competition is called a feis, an Irish word meaning what?

Feis means festival; the word once described a gathering with music, poetry and games, and an Irish dancing feis judges competitors on footwork, timing and carriage.

Why was the tin whistle nicknamed after a small coin in Victorian times?

Penny whistle, because it cost one penny to buy: Robert Clarke's factory-made tin whistles, produced in Manchester from the 1840s, were cheap enough for anyone.

The bodhrán, the Irish frame drum, is traditionally covered with the skin of which animal?

A bodhrán is traditionally covered with goat skin; the player presses a hand against the inside of the skin to change the pitch while striking the other side with a stick called a tipper.

How does a player fill the bag of Ireland's uilleann pipes with air?

Uilleann is the Irish word for elbow, which is what pumps the bellows.

The words to 'Danny Boy' were written in 1910 by a lawyer from which country?

Frederic Weatherly was a lawyer from Somerset, in England; he wrote the words in 1910 and fitted them to the Irish tune 'Londonderry Air' in 1913 after his sister-in-law sent it from America.

A shillelagh, the knobbly Irish walking stick, is typically cut from which wood?

A shillelagh is typically cut from blackthorn, whose dense wood and root knob make a natural club; the sticks were often cured up a chimney for months before being polished.

Irish soda bread rises using baking soda instead of which usual ingredient?

Soda bread uses baking soda and the acid in buttermilk to rise instead of yeast; the sweet raisin version sold as 'traditional' abroad is called spotted dog in Ireland.

What happened in Boston on Evacuation Day, celebrated on the same date as St. Patrick's Day?

British troops left the city of Boston by sea in 1776 after Washington's cannon on Dorchester Heights made the harbour untenable, ending the eleven-month siege; the city's Evacuation Day holiday shares the saint's date.

Which First Lady had the White House fountains dyed green in 2009?

Michelle Obama had the White House fountains dyed green for St. Patrick's Day 2009, the Obamas' first in office, and the fountains were dyed again in later years.

The capital of which European country dyes its river green every St Patrick's Day?

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, dyes the little Vilnia river bright green for St Patrick's Day, a custom the city copied from America in the 2010s even though the day is not a holiday there.

Saint Patrick's red X-shaped cross was combined with two others to form which flag?

The Union Jack combines Saint Patrick's red saltire with the crosses of Saint George and Saint Andrew; the red diagonals were added in 1801 when Ireland joined the United Kingdom.

Which author of Gulliver's Travels was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin?

Jonathan Swift was dean of St Patrick's Cathedral from 1713 until his death in 1745 and is buried inside it; the cathedral is the largest church in Ireland.

How many traditional counties does the island of Ireland have?

Ireland has 32 traditional counties: twenty-six in the Republic of Ireland and the rest in Northern Ireland; the counties date from English administration between the 1200s and the 1600s.

Which Irish province joins Connacht, Leinster and Munster to make up the island?

Ulster is the northern province; most of its nine counties form Northern Ireland, while Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are in the Republic.

What is the longest river in Ireland?

The Shannon is Ireland's longest river, running about 360 kilometres from the Shannon Pot in County Cavan, flowing past Limerick to the Atlantic.

What is the highest mountain in Ireland?

Carrauntoohil in County Kerry is Ireland's highest mountain at 1,039 metres, more than 270 metres higher than the pilgrim mountain Croagh Patrick.

Which sport draws the biggest crowds in Ireland?

Gaelic football draws the largest crowds of any sport in Ireland; its top players are amateurs, and the All-Ireland final at Croke Park can draw more than 80,000 spectators.

Which NHL team was called the St. Patricks and wore green from 1919 to 1927?

The Toronto Maple Leafs played as the Toronto St. Patricks in green from 1919 to 1927, until new owner Conn Smythe renamed them the Maple Leafs and dropped the green.