Debate contribution: St Patrick’s Day in Downpatrick
Debate contribution by Mr Doug Beattie MC on .
- MLA
- Mr Doug Beattie MC
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 12 May 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- St Patrick’s Day in Downpatrick
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5528790
Read the official Assembly record
Text
This is outside my patch, so I might do a little bit of promotion for somewhere else. Thank you, Colin, for bringing this forward: your enthusiasm is infectious, and you have a story to tell. St Patrick is an important religious and cultural figure. The St Patrick story travels the centuries in various guises. As a man with a military background, I have celebrated St Patrick's Day my whole life. It blends seamlessly my identity, my culture and my military traditions. I have celebrated St Patrick's Day across the globe: from the deserts of Iraq and Kuwait, to the green zone in Afghanistan and the north German plains. I even celebrated it at the Maifeld in Berlin, when it was still divided, which is where Hitler used to hold his rallies. Interestingly, in the military, you celebrate St Patrick's Day in a slightly different way. We have a thing called "gunfire" on St Patrick's Day: you are woken up with whiskey and tea and forced to drink it first thing in the morning. Then, you go out on parade, where you are presented with your shamrock. It is a tradition, but we also remember the reason why we do it, so it is not just a tradition for the sake of it. I have always been struck that, although we are the home of St Patrick, we decant out of here every year. All the great and the good — I have done this as well — disappear from their homes, the area where St Patrick came from, and head to the United States. We find ourselves in Washington, which, I have to say, puts on a great show. An awful lot of time, effort and money is put into St Patrick's Day in Washington and elsewhere. You have to ask yourself this question: why not do that here? Why not have them all come to us? Why not have the Taoiseach or the president come to Downpatrick or Armagh? Why not have the ambition to say, "Let's bring them all here, because we can do it"? Do you know what? This is the home of St Patrick. Unfortunately, by all going to the United States, we have allowed a bit a Disneyfication of St Patrick's Day to happen, which is sad. We all know that, from Slemish to Armagh to Saul Church in Downpatrick, St Patrick covers great swathes of Northern Ireland. He is revered across the country and on both sides of the border. St Patrick has huge meaning for Downpatrick in respect of religious identity, cultural identity, family, and tourism — all things that could and should be tapped into in Downpatrick. St Patrick's grave is marked by a massive granite stone, I believe. I have not been to the site — isn't that a shame — but I am definitely going to go. It is a place of quiet pilgrimage that draws visitors from across the globe. We already have a place that people can go to and say, "This is the burial site of St Patrick". We already have the starting point. What we now need is the enthusiasm, funding and organisation to bring people here. St Patrick's mission began at Slemish Mountain and ended in Downpatrick. It is there, in the shadow of his tomb, that history, faith, Irish identity and British identity meet. That is important. Diane is right: sometimes, we allow people to capture St Patrick's Day and drag it away, when it should belong to us all. We see that with various other things as well, not just St Patrick's Day. However, there needs to be a real sense that we can all get together and celebrate our patron saint on an incredibly important day. If we can do that in Downpatrick or Armagh, bringing people from across the globe to us, it will show that we have a real confidence in what we have to offer. I would genuinely like us, on St Patrick's Day, not to leave here to see green rivers in New York, Boston or Washington but to bring people to Downpatrick to see what we have to offer.
692 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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