The irish shamrock

Since long time ago the shamrock has been associated to Ireland as a symbol. People tend to do it without even knowing the reason of this, but what does this little green plant with three leafs has to do with Ireland? Well, my team mates and I found out about this.

Ireland is a country full of legends, myths and uncommon beliefs –Leprechauns, banshees, druids- and this is one of them. The story says that Saint Patrick, the man who brought Catholicism to Ireland, was trying to explain the belief of the Holy Trinity, but people found it too hard to understand. He had to think about an easy way to explain it, so he took a shamrock and told them that the Holy Trinity was just like that weed: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the parts of that three-in-one person, same as the shamrock, in which each of its leafs is a different person, but at the end, there is just one shamrock.

People loved that interpretation; it was a totally new point of view, so the understood and started believe in what Saint Patrick told them.

This is an interesting thing to learn about Irish culture, because their religion’s still being very important to them and about the 85% remains as Catholics (In the republic of Ireland, do not get confused with Northern Ireland). Also, it explains the origins of Catholicism and the common belief about the relationship about Ireland and shamrocks.

As a “Fun fact”, the four leaf clover (the difference with the shamrock is mostly the quantity of leafs) is considered to be good luck, because the three leafs of the shamrock also represent hope, faith and love, and according to the belief, the forth one was given by God and it represents luck.