Saint Patrick may have banished them more than 1,500 years ago but Ireland's immigrant snakes found safety in numbers yesterday as they gathered for the second annual Reptile Expo in Dublin. The exhibition, organised by the Herpetological Society of Ireland, aims to prove that even if some of them are cold-blooded and scaly with beady eyes and forked tongues, reptiles can still be pet material.
(Herpetology is the study of reptiles and it is derived from a Greek word which means "creeping thing".)
The colourful snakes on display, which included pythons, king snakes, corn snakes and boas, were an endearingly docile bunch. Some were spectator-shy and were hard to spot curled up under bits of tree bark in their warm glass cases.
But many were happy to come out and slither around the arms of their owners and anybody else who wanted to touch them. One, an albino Burmese Python, looked like a huge under-cooked baguette. Visitors were invited to guess its weight and win a T-shirt.
There were also lizards, tortoises and turtles which come from Mexico, India, Australia and Africa.
In the native species section were frogs, toads, newts and lizards whose predecessors had escaped the wrath of the hail glorious one in green.
The owners were happy to chat about their pets' personalities and dietary habits.
Aisling Morris (10) who owns a seven-inch leopard-spotted gecko called Lesley, explained that he ate crickets.
"When he's bigger he'll eat new-born mice, called pinkies," she said cheerfully. "We have hamsters sometimes and we have to freeze the babies for him."
The exhibition was held in the function room of Mother Redcap's Tavern in Christ Church and was well attended by people of all ages.
The herpetological society estimates that there are about 3,000 people keeping reptiles and amphibians in Ireland.
"It's as easy to keep them as it would be to keep a dog," said the society's conservation officer, Mr Graham Little. "You can buy prepacked food. They're easier to keep than a dog because they don't crave love or attention, so they're fairly handy."