Shamrock
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A shamrock is a type of clover, used as a symbol of Ireland. The word shamrock comes from Irish seamróg, which is the diminutive of the Irish word seamair and simply means "young clover".
White clover (Trifolium repens) and yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta)
Trifolium dubium
This flowering shamrock is a South American species of wood sorrel, Oxalis regnellii.
Trifolium repens
Saint Patrick
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Saint Patrick was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being
Shamrock
…Whilste all the Hibernian Kernes in multitudes, /Did feast with shamerags steeved in Usquebagh." Traditionally, shamrock is said to have been used by Saint Patrick to illustrate the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity when Christianising Ireland in the 5th century. The first evidence of a link between St Patrick…
Stained-glass window of Saint Patrick from Church of the Assumption, Our Lady's Island, County Wexford, Ireland
The reputed burial place of Saint Patrick in Downpatrick
Late Roman Britain
A stained-glass window in St Patrick's Church, Ballymena, showing him as a shepherd near Slemish mountain