Shout out for all our famous Patricks
Celebrating the forgotten namesakes who have left their mark on Irish history
ST Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, the day when we toast our patron saint.
He might be our favourite Paddy, but there are lots more Patricks in Irish history.
Epic – Ireland’s museum of immigration – is heralding The Other Patricks this weekend, to celebrate March 17.
The museum tells the curious stories of Sister Mary Patrick, the aristocrat who became a missionary, and Irish-american actor Patrick Mcgoohan, who grew up in Leitrim.
Here are some other Patricks...
Patrick Hannan, gold
prospector
Born in Quin, Co Clare, in 1840, Patrick Hannan emigrated to Western Australia in 1862 in search of gold.
In 1893, he and two others struck the “Golden Mile” near Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Their find drew thousands of fortune-seekers to the region, who turned the town of Kalgoorlie into a thriving hub of mining, commerce and industry.
But the rush brought with it colonisation and dispossession of native aboriginal people, who were displaced from their lands to make way for mining and new communities. After his death in 1925, Kalgoorlie erected a statue to honour the founding father of the town.
Patrick Hearn, writer and
teacher
Born on the Greek Island of Lefkada in 1850 to an Anglo-irish medical officer and Greek mother, Patrick moved to Dublin as a child, when his father was stationed in Crimea.
He was abandoned by his mother and his father left him in the permanent care of his great aunt in Tramore, Co Waterford. As a boy, he was exposed to traditional Irish myths and legends, which led to a career as a writer.
He moved to Cincinnati, where he became known as Cincinnati’s “most audacious journalist.” He wrote for Harpers Weekly Magazine in New Orleans and the Caribbean and penned two books.
In 1890, he moved to Japan, married, had four children and became a Japanese citizen. Until his death in 1904 he wrote 15 anthologies, books, articles, and collections of Japanese myths.
Sr Mary Patrick,
missionary
Born Frances Lewis to an absentee landlord family in London, her family had connections in high society. When her husband became ill, they moved to Italy where he died in hospital.
She moved to Dublin to assist Belgian refugees and trained in midwifery, general nursing and tropical medicine.
After becoming a nun, she chose the name Sister Mary Patrick.
In 1926, at the age of 53, Sister Mary Patrick and five other sisters left for China. They provided vaccinations for locals, curbing smallpox outbreaks and helping the poor. She returned to Ireland to continue her charitable work.
Patrick Leahy,
Olympian
Born in Limerick in 1877, one of seven boys, Patrick Leahy was from an athletic family.
Both he and his brother Con became Olympians. At the 1900
Paris Olympics he was one of the first to cross the marathon finish line but exact positions were not recorded.
He and Con emigrated to the United States in 1909. He competed in the 1908 London Olympics and the Chicago AA Gaelic games, setting a record for standing jumps.
Despite his fitness, Leahy died at 50 as Ireland’s forgotten Olympian.
Patrick Touhey,
musician
Born in Galway in 1865, Patrick’s family emigrated to Boston when he was three. By the age of 11, he took up the Uilleann pipes.
He toured the northeast US with a slapstick comedy show, playing traditional Irish folk tunes, appearing at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the 1904 World Fair in St Louis.
His depictions of an Irish person didn’t go down well everywhere. Actors from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre described his music and costume as “a vile caricature of the Irish race.” Nonetheless, Patrick Touhey and his wife, Mary, played dance halls across the US.
Patrick Mcgoohan,
actor
Born in 1928, in New York to Irish parents, Mcgoohan moved to the family home in Carrigallen in Leitrim, where he grew up until he left for England.
His role as John Drake in Danger Man made him famous and he became the UK’S highest paid actor. He later starred in The Prisoner, Escape from Alcatraz and Braveheart.