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The Forager and Saint Patrick
On Thursday 20th March I attended a meeting of Lucan Toastmasters which is reputed to be the best club in Ireland. The first speaker was a fairly new member Aisling Moore, with a speech titled The Forager.
When I saw the title of the speech I asked myself, “Am I a forager?”
My question was prompted by the fact that I take items out of skips.
But the opening words of Ms Moore’s speech convinced me that retrieving
broken pedal-bins or lengths of two-by-one planed timber from refuse
wouldn’t qualify me. What did she tell us?
"I am passionate about truly living life. I am a
forager and I make products from what I gather. I have been doing that
for several years. I started doing workshops last year and I am
dedicated to helping people reconnect with nature and remember the
healing power of the land. The earth provides medicine to nurture us,
but we have forgotten its origins. We have lost the ability to identify
herbs and understand how they support our bodies."
"In losing this knowledge, we have also lost our belief
in nature’s medicine. The spirit of the herbs struggles to reach us
because our minds are clouded with constant thought. True connection
with nature happens when we become fully present. It is time to
remember, to listen, and to heal with the wisdom of the land."
Each member of the audience was given a small cup of “Haw-Tea” and we were instructed how to “Listen to the Hawthorn”
The forager told me how as she was walking through fields,
" . . . with a heavy heart. Each step carrying the weight of a memory.
Sorrow pressing against my chest. Suddenly I felt something, a sound,
faint as a whisper, it felt like a dream. My whole body shuddered. As I
came closer to the bright red hawthorn berries, the messages became
clearer. A voice spoke 'I can heal your heart.' The words moved through
me, flowing into every part of my body. I stood beside the hawthorn
tree. Staring at the twisted branches, its sharp thorns. I knew deep in
my soul that this tree held wisdom. I felt it merge with me. It’s spirit
connecting with my spirit. More and more messages followed, visions
flooded my mind.
Showing me exactly what to do. The power held within
the berries, leaves and flowers. I quickly gathered them offering my
gratitude to the spirit of the hawthorn. As I did lightness spread
through me my sorrow lifted. The hawthorn had spoken and I the forager
had listened. It is time to remember, to listen, and to heal with the
wisdom of the land, and to heal with the wisdom of the land."
If you happen to be visiting this green and misty island for
the feast of our National Apostle and you are in the vicinity of
Kildare this committed forager will be having a workshop on March 22nd
in Celbridge and it would certainly be worth visiting. . If you are
staying at home Aisling’s Instagram is Moore.aisling and her email
address is, aislingdaybyday@gmail.com
Please go to your nearest Saint Patrick’s Day parade and
for a few lesser known facts about the saint’s influence I’ll hand you
over to Maggie Zackowitz.
How St. Patrick became the patron saint of Nigeria
By Maggie Zackowitz
As Americans prepare to observe St. Patrick's Day with pub crawls, parades, corned beef, and green clothing, beer and bagels, let's not forget about that country for which Patrick is a patron saint.
Irish bishops in Nigeria named St. Patrick, who is said to have died on March 17 in the year 461, as the country's patron in 1961, the same year Ireland opened its embassy in Lagos. The Irish actually have a long history in the country: Irish nationalist Roger Casement — executed in Dublin in 1916 for his role in the Irish rebels' Easter Rising — served as a British consular officer in Calabar, in southeastern Nigeria, during the 1890s. Casement's interest in and sympathy for Africans under colonial rule was unusual for a European in the Victorian era, and likely helped shape his views on social justice.
In the early 1920s, Irish priests of the Order of the Holy Ghost established their mission in southern Nigeria. Later St. Patrick's Society for Foreign Missions, dedicated on March 17, 1932, became one of many Catholic groups in Nigeria providing education both religious and secular.
These days Catholics in the country number some 20 million, and Nigerian seminaries send their ordinates all over the world to serve as priests. In fact, since numbers of clergy in Ireland have long been in decline, Nigerian priests have recently been assigned to churches there.
Though St. Patrick's Day is not an official public holiday in Nigeria, plenty of Guinness stout will be consumed anyway. It's the second most popular beer in the country, brewed with sorghum or maize instead of the European recipe's barley, and packs 7.5 percent alcohol content.
And "Irish diplomats of course celebrate St. Patrick's Day," says Eoghan McSwiney, deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja. "The Embassy organizes high-profile St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the capital Abuja, and in Lagos, as well in Accra, Ghana. We are joined by friends and colleagues from the diplomatic corps and from the highest levels of the Nigerian public and private sector."
There is one big difference from American St. Patrick's Day celebrations, though, and it's not green bagels. In Nigeria, says McSwiney, "We don't organize a parade."
See you in April.
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