Not Irish, Snake Charmer, Or Saint - St. Patrick's Day Resources

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In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, many of us will don green even if we are not Irish. The Irish diaspora around the world makes it hard not to feel a little Irish on March 17. In fact, the Irish population in the United States is seven times larger than that of Ireland, and approximate 71 million live outside of the country.

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Our students join in the fun, just like they do wearing red for Valentine’s Day or orange and black on Halloween. As always though, we try to look for ways to tie in the humanities. The history of St. Patrick and his role in converting the Druids to Christianity is as much a mythological tale as it is a historical event.

We gathered some resources here to use with our learners. Each of the motion graphics gives just a little insight into the day, the man, and of course the parade. One of our favorites is the video, the History of Saint Patrick – A Short Story, by Jeremiah Warren. It’s quirky, quick delivery reminds us of the entertaining videos our students love by CGP Grey.





Another short film featured on the History Channel is Bet You Didn’t Know: St. Patrick’s Day. Close to a million Irish fled to the United States in the 1840s because of the Great Potato Famine, settling in major cities along the east coast such as New York and Boston. As a result, demonstrating Irish pride grew, making New York’s St. Patrick's Day parade one of the largest in the world.





The video, Who Was St. Patrick, produced by Rose Publishing as part of its series called Christian History Made Easy provides an engaging and entertaining look at St. Patrick's place in Irish and Christian history.





As always, we continually use infographics with our learners as a way to revisit the design of information as an engaging way to break down the facts with text, images, and graphics. A new one we came across for this season is St. Patrick’s Day And How The Irish Took Over The World When No One Was Looking. It combines a blend of information on celebrations, population, customs, culture, and inventions. The content easily connects to a host of curricula areas as well.

Source: Visual.ly (detail)

For more, please see Infographics And The Luck Of The Irish