Madam, - Recently I received promotional material from An Post advertising the stamps just issued to commemorate 100 years of St Patrick's Day as a public holiday. Two of the stamps depict St Patrick's Day parades, one featuring the National Cathedral of St Patrick, Dublin, with St Patrick's Cathedral, New York on the other.
The third stamp in the set is said to feature St Patrick himself but is clearly a sham, or should we say shamroguery. The white bearded cleric wearing the mitre of a bishop and a green chasuble could not possibly represent our patron saint as the robes depicted were not invented until at least 500 years after Patrick's time.
Do we really want the modern world to believe the myths and legends that were concocted around him centuries after his death? Next thing we will be telling people Patrick was Irish. - Yours, etc.,
Rev PETER T. HANNA,
Farnahoe,
Innishannon,
Co Cork.