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Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories
The Sleepy History of Shamrocks
00:48:15
Narrated by Thomas. Trace the colourful history of the humble shamrock — a symbol of Ireland, often associated with Saint Patrick.
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Thomas
Get Sleepy is a production of Slumber Studios and is made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors and Premium members. If you'd like to listen ad free and access weekly bonus episodes, extra long stories and our entire back catalogue, you can try out Premium free for seven days by following the link in the episode notes. Now a quick word from our sponsors. Do you struggle to find a comfortable position to relax during the day, let alone get a restful night's sleep? Then let me introduce you to the zcliner, the revolutionary recliner designed by Flextil to be both your ultimate relaxation station for the daytime and your perfect sleep solution when you're ready to get some shuteye. With four distinct models to choose from and there's a ZKliner that's right for you. And for those who need a little extra help getting in and out of their chair, each ZKliner model offers a powerlift option. Just a couple of the features that I think you'll love include a removable head pillow that helps alleviate pain, pressure and stress in the upper parts of the body, plus memory programs that can be set to your preferred positions for watching TV and sleeping. So stop tossing and turning and start living a healthier, more rested life. You deserve the Zkleiner. Visit zkleiner.com to find the perfect model for you. That's Z-E C L-I-N-E-R.com welcome to get Sleepy where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. My name's Thomas and it's my honour to be your host. I'll be reading this evening's story, which was written by Alicia Stefan. No matter whether people are Irish or not, many seem to enjoy donning the colour green and meeting friends to join in celebrating St. Patrick's Day. As part of that, many may wear a T shirt or an accessory that features a shamrock. After all, everybody knows it's an instantly recognisable symbol of Ireland. But how much can St. Patrick really lay claim to the shamrock's fame? In what other ways did the national symbol truly come to be? Tonight we'll take a light hearted walk through history to consider these questions. So allow yourself to let go of the day and to relax as you settle into the comfort of your bed. Close your eyes if you've not yet done so, sending a signal to your brain that the day is over and it's time to recharge. You can leave the day behind and let go of any thoughts or worries. However things went for you today and however you felt about it, it's time to let go and prepare for a fresh start tomorrow. There's nothing you need to do now but rest, relax and just listen to our story. Take a deep breath in and back out one more time, breathing in and easing the air back out. With the release of each breath, sense yourself sinking deeper into relaxation, enjoying the calming peace of this moment and the coziness of your supportive bed soft covers. As you let go of any thoughts of the day, it makes space for your mind to softly follow. Along with our story, it's time to find out all about the history of the ship Shamrock. So imagine that you are off to witness springtime in Ireland, surrounding yourself with fields and a feeling of endless space. This is where our story begins. Since the year 1952, on St. Patrick's Day, it has been a diplomatic tradition for the Irish ambassador to present the President of the United States with a bowl of shamrocks. Considering the occasion, this seems like the most natural gesture imaginable. After all, St Patrick's Day has become an Irish holiday that people the world over celebrate with a strong showing of shamrocks and an abundance of the plant's iconic green colour. This trademark look certainly calls to mind the dreamy slopes of Ireland, a country which is generally admired for its lush beauty and rolling, verdant landscape. But many would argue that it was the shamrock itself that made St. Patrick's Day so green. And while the idea of a shamrock is easy for most people to explain, the science of the shamrock and its origins are actually somewhat murky. In truth, the shamrock is really more of an emblem that represents a real plant and an ancient story. However, for those who delight in botany and history, this charming little symbol offers more mysteries than people realize. In short, nobody really knows what a shamrock is. Now, this statement will take many by surprise. Isn't a shamrock a three leaf clover? The answer is yes. The shamrock depicts a three leaf plant that appears to be a clover. For many of us, that is enough. But for exacting historians, it leaves unanswered questions. For a plant that has been widely accepted as uniquely Irish, the shamrock actually gets by without much scrutiny. In the beginning, early Irish literature hinted at the idea of shamrocks by offering a description of a flowering clovered plain. For example, this imagery appeared in a series of medieval metrical poems. Another source suggested that the famous Saint Brigid decided to stay in County Kildare rather than leave when she spotted a plane covered in beautiful clover blossoms. The words used for these descriptions were mag, skoho and skoshemrah. So it's Easy to see where the modern word came from. But this imagery was at first only linked to clover. It may surprise you to know that the word shamrock itself was first used by the English. In 1571, Elizabethan scholar Edmund Campion wrote two books of the histories of Ireland. In those works he made bold to suggest that the people he called the wild Irish were known to eat something he termed shamroads, along with watercress roots and other herbs. As so often happens in historical writing, that vague assertion was then widely repeated. It seems that the shamroot became somewhat mixed up with the word shamsog, which means wood sorrel. And while no Irish source supports the idea that people were eating clover, they may have been eating wood sorrel. The poet Edmund Spenser perpetuated the use of shamrock in this context. He said that shamrocks were a food eaten as a last resort during times of famine in Ireland. In his book A View of the Present State of Ireland, he anatomies of death. They spake like ghosts crying out of their graves. They did eat of the carians, and if they found a plot of watercress or shamrocks there, they flocked as to a feast for the time, yet not able long to continue therewithal. Later authors were all too eager to perpetuate this idea. A man named Fiennes Morrison, who was the secretary to the Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1617, wrote condescendingly that the wild Irish ate shamrock in their hand to mouth existence as bandits. His report was that they would willingly eat the herb shamrock being of a sharp taste which they found in the ditches. Of course, the taste of wood sorrel is fairly bitter, so it's possible that's what he was talking about with the help of these dubious accounts. By the end of the 17th century, there was a general impression that the Irish were eating shamrocks. However, this idea appears to have no basis in actual fact. Students of history would be justified in wondering why all these men were writing about eating shamrocks without so much as a mention of St Patrick and his connection to the famous three leaved clover. After all, it's a commonly accepted story that St. Patrick used the three lobes of the shamrock to demonstrate the Holy Trinity when he came to Christianise Ireland in the fifth century. That would have taken place a thousand years prior to the writing of these uninformed botanists who were talking about eating shamrocks. So how can it be that St. Patrick hadn't come up? Well, the answer might be that the St. Patrick tale was invented by people of a later era and that St. Patrick never used a clover at all. This may seem like a surprising suggestion, but it makes a lot of sense when you think about it from a practical standpoint. First of all, St. Patrick himself made no mention of shamrocks in his writings whatsoever. In addition to that, one has to admit that a shamrock is too small to function as a good demonstration tool for a large group of people. Science writer and tour guide Mary Mulvahill pointed this out while doing an interview with Smithsonian magazine, suggesting that even if a three lobed plant was used, it was probably a larger one. Without any support from the writings of St. Patrick, it appears that the first suggestion of the saint's use of a shamrock appeared on a special type of coin called a St. Patrick's Day copper in 1675. These special halpennies showed a picture of St. Patrick preaching and holding a shamrock. However, we don't know where the idea for the coin came from. The first written link between St Patrick and the Shamrock comes from something recorded in 1681 by an English writer named Thomas Dingley, sometimes written as Dinaly. In his descriptions of the holiday festivities, he mentioned that the Irish vulgar superstitiously wore Shamrog's three leaved grass, which they likewise ate to cause a sweet breath. Why this festivity or desire for sweet breath seemed vulgar to Mr. Dingley is something of a mystery, but it firmly places the shamrock with St. Patrick by the time the 18th century rolled around. In 1726, a botanist named Reverend Caleb Threlkeld picked up the thread identifying the shamrock as Whitefield clover in an observation of a traditional St. Patrick's Day celebration. In his book, which bears the cumbersome title A Short Treatise of Native Plants, especially such as grow in the Vicinity of Dublin. He established a link between the Shamrock and St. Patrick, saying the this plant is worn by the people in their hats upon the 17th day of March yearly, which is called St Patrick's Day, it being a current tradition that by this three leafed grass he emblematically set forth to them the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Having said this, he continued with a rather judgmental tone, however that be when they wet their shamroke they often commit excess in liquor, which is not a right keeping of a day to the Lord, error generally leading to debauchery. His objections likely referred to a tradition called drowning the shamrock, otherwise known as a St Patrick's pot, in which the men of the community went to a tavern when the final glass had been drunk. It was commonplace to toss one's ornamental shamrock into the glass and then, last of all, throw it over one's left shoulder. So even though there isn't really any solid evidence that St. Patrick actually used a shamrock in his teachings, it is now inextricably linked to the holiday. But St. Patrick's Day alone was not enough to catapult the humble shamrock to its current position as a national symbol of Ireland. That probably wouldn't have happened if shamrocks hadn't been adopted as an emblem by Irish militias. In the late 18th century, shamrocks were seen on flags flown by the Irish Volunteers who were organising in order to defend their homeland from the threat of the French and the Spanish after British troops left to fight in America. Later, shamrocks, and more broadly, their particular green colour, were also adopted by the United Irishmen, as is immortalized in the song the Wearing of the Green. They proudly displayed the colour in their clothing and in ribbons on their hats. The Eringo bra flag was flown as their standard and it was often depicted with Shamrocks. And in 1799 there was even a journal about their efforts called the Shamrock. Irish people who emigrated to the United States in the late 18th century further established the link between shamrocks and the colour green. Simply due to necessity, on foreign shores, they didn't have any actual shamrocks to display, so they fell back on images and simply used the well known shamrock green for their festivities. In fact, the first St. Patrick's Day parade in Boston happened in 1737, followed by one in New York City in 1762. So their fervour for the holiday was clear. When the act of Union created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the 1st of January 1801, the shamrock began to appear again as a symbol of its home country. It was incorporated into the Royal Coat of Arms of the uk, where it was depicted growing from a single stem alongside the rose of England and the thistle of Scotland. Since that time, it has appeared on coins and stamps beside the rose, thistle and a leek for Wales. These motifs can also be found on buildings around Britain. As the 19th century progressed, the shamrock became increasingly prevalent as a symbol of Ireland. It was published in books and on stationery and was mentioned in songs and ballads. Thomas More even wrote a poem called O the Shamrock that cast Ireland's three leafed clover in a passionately charming light. He a triple grass shoots up with dewdrops streaming as softly green as emeralds seen through purest crystal gleaming O the shamrock, the green immortal shamrock chosen leaf of bard and chief old Erin's Native shamrock. One must admit that this was a far cry from the distaste shown towards the subject by Campion and Spencer hundreds of years earlier. The shamrock had really come into its own. Perhaps it was this cultural prominence that lit such a fire under the botanists of the day, who suddenly felt a strong desire to know which type of clover was really the true shamrock. Smithsonian magazine delved into the history of that quest, sharing the series of efforts to uncover the truth. An article from 2015 tells the tale. In 1830, a botanist and colonial official named James Ebenezer Bicino found himself stationed in Ireland. Based on literary references and the old reports of Irish people eating sharp tasting shamrocks, he asserted that the true shamrock was actually wood sorrel. To add insult to injury, he falsely added that clover was not even native to the country and that it wouldn't have existed there in the time when these early reports were written. It's easy to understand that this was not a hot topic for many people, but two botanists named James Britton and Robert Holland couldn't resist adding to the conversation. In 1878, they pointed out that a species called yellow clover was the variety most often sold in Covent Garden on St Patrick's Day, although another plant called Black Medic, sometimes known as nonesuch or hop clover, was more often found in Dublin. A decade later, an amateur botanist and police clerk named Nathaniel Colgan was proactive enough to make a study of the matter. He wrote to people in 11 Irish counties around the time of St Patrick's Day and asked them each to send him a sample of a shamrock. The results showed a schism. Eight people sent him a yellow clover and five sent him white clover. The insufficient sample size must have vexed him, because he repeated the experiment on a grander scale the very next year, contacting clergymen in parishes around the country and asking them to send more samples. This time he covered a wider area, including the more densely populated regions of Cork and Dublin. Out of the 35 responses he received, 19 were white clover, 12 were yellow clover, two were red clover, and two were black Maddock. These results were somewhat skewed by region, with Cork and Dublin falling most on the side of Black Medic. James Britain would have felt vindicated if he had known. A hundred years later, a horticultural taxonomist named E. Charles Nelson tried the experiment again at Ireland's National Botanic Gardens. The results were again mixed, leading him to conclude that there is no single uniquely Irish species that can be equated with shamrock. In the Smithsonian article about the Botanical Origins of Shamrocks Mary Mulverhill explained that Ireland eventually had to choose a single type of clover in order to offer commercial licenses for export. The powers that be selected yellow clover. To this day, it's what is most often sold by growers and according to our modern taxonomist E. Charles Nelson, if you're a tourist in Ireland and you purchase seeds labelled as true shamrock seeds, the packet is most likely to contain yellow clover. As Irish as the shamrock now appears, there was a pivotal moment in the 1980s when Ireland's ownership over the three leaved clover was challenged. In 1981, a German dairy company called Meggle Milchindustri registered a blue shamrock, which they called Clayblatt, as a trademark. They then sued the Irish Export Board for using its own green shamrock at trade shows in Germany. The Irish Export Board went to court to fight for their symbol. They offered numerous items as evidence, trying to show how the shamrock had long been used as a symbol of their country. Those items included book covers, record sleeves and even notepaper for the airline Aer Lingus. The Prime Minister of Ireland even went straight to Germany's Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt to plead the case. As part of his argument, he told the story about how St. Patrick used the shamrock to convert the Irish to Christianity. Unfortunately, none of these early efforts were successful, and Meggle initially won the right to use the trademark exclusively. A subsequent case that Meggle initiated against another company associated with the Irish Meat and Livestock Board also succeeded. However, the Irish were determined in 1985 they finally won their right to use the shamrock in Germany by appealing to the German Supreme Court. The greeting card company known as Hallmark would certainly have agreed about Ireland's unique ownership of the shamrock. By the early 1900s, they were featuring it on postcards related to St. Patrick's Day. In a 2019 interview with Time magazine, their archivist and historian Samantha Bradbeer explained that the company began displaying shamrocks on their products as early as 1910, using the most popular symbol of Ireland. They soon progressed to greeting cards. In 1920, the Shamrock's association with Ireland was lasting. Bradbeer explained that that this is still one of the most popular images used today for the event, and the article further states that St. Patrick's Day was the ninth most popular greeting card holiday. At the time the article was written. Bradbeer forecast that about 7 million cards would be sold for St. Patrick's Day that year. The tradition of delivering a bowl of shamrocks to the US President is going strong and a charming new twist has been added. Beginning in 1969 with President Richard Nixon. Each year, the bowl that holds the cheerful gift is made by the iconic Irish crystal maker Waterford. In 1995, Bill Clinton used the occasion to try to do something important. He invited Sinn Fein President Jerry Adams, Ulster Democratic Party leader and loyalist Gary McMichael and Republic of Ireland Prime Minister John Bruton to gather with him for what is now called the Shamrock Ceremony. Eventually, this meeting helped pave the way for the 1998 Good Friday, or Belfast Peace Agreement. In Ireland today, shamrocks are so widely associated with Ireland that it's hard to imagine anyone winning an argument to the contrary. Wherever an organization, city or country wants to represent Irish descent, a shamrock may well appear. For example, it can be found on flags as far away as Canada and is featured in the imagery for the basketball team the Boston Celtics. Even the Fast food company McDonald's has capitalised on the heritage of the Shamrock for over 50 years now. Annually around St. Patrick's Day, they offer the famous Green Shamrock shake, which has proven to be a perennial favourite. Originally flavoured with lemon and lime, this chilled treat has also had a vanilla flavour before it landed on the current mint iteration. But who cares what it tastes like as long as it's not sharp like wood sorrel? Surely the people of 16th century Ireland would approve of such a sweet St Patrick's Day treat. Looking back through history, it's quite clear that the emergence of the shamrock wasn't really about St. Patrick at first, nor was it linked to any particular type of clover that grew in a given place in Ireland. But thanks to its unique ability to represent the beauty of Ireland's lush plains, its accessibility for even the humblest celebrants, and its easy translation to a simple picture, the shamrock has endured the test of time. There is a saying that everyone is a little Irish on St Patrick's Day, and indeed people of many nationalities may wear green or stick a shamrock in their clothes and raise a glass to the celebration. But only the people of Ireland can truly lay claim to the shamrock. The court of public opinion has said so sa.