The only snakes I saw in Ireland were the long, narrow, windy black ones like in the photo above.
It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, except in zoos and as pets. There never were any snakes in Ireland so the story of St. Patrick is just that, a story.
Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica, are the only countries that have no snakes, and the one thing they all have in common is that they are an island. The main reason there are no snakes in Ireland and the other places is they cannot get there.
100 million years ago snakes first evolved. They started out on the continent Gondwanaland (a super continent made up of modern-day Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia) Ireland was completely underwater at this time. When the world’s climate started to dry out, 65 million years ago, grass lands and other habitats opened out and snakes became very wide spread in the northern hemisphere. The snakes could not cross the water to Ireland or the other islands, even when the water levels fell and Ireland was joined by land bridges to Great Britain and Europe, any snake that migrated to Ireland would have been killed when the ice age hit. The last ice age 3 million years ago covered Ireland in a blanket of ice, and snakes being cold blooded couldn’t survive. When Ireland warmed up enough for snakes to live, they still had the 12 miles of water to cross which would have been impossible. So sadly there are no snakes in Ireland.
The myth of St. Patrick is believed to come from the fact that St. Patrick introduced Christianity to Ireland and the snake was the symbol for paganism and also the snake being the tempter of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Poor snakes got a bad press.
I wish we did have snakes in Ireland, it’s a pity." Rachel's Answer.
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