On Friday, 3rd June 2011 I visited the Saint Patrick’s Centre, Downpatrick, County Down with the Lord Bannside, Dr Ian Paisley, Baroness Eileen Paisley and Ian Paisley Jr MP. We were met and shown round the Centre by Tim Campbell, the manager of the complex.

Saint Patrick’s Day is actively celebrated by over 6 million people each year in almost every country in the world. For most people it is a day of parades, snakes, shamrocks and green beer. Most of those who celebrate have no knowledge of Patrick and certainly no idea that Patrick’s main legacy and burial place is in Northern Ireland. Here Saint Patrick’s Day has the potential to be political and divisive rather than neutral and inclusive. As a result many people with an interest feel they cannot get involved in commemorating Patrick.

Tim Campbell would propose that Saint Patrick’s Day should be a day when we work in the spirit of Saint Patrick – a day of national reconciliation, when people of all faiths and traditions can come together and celebrate the common Christian message which binds us together and focus on charitable giving for charities in Northern Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day would become less about flags and politics and more about finding a common spirit of good will to help those less fortunate than ourselves who suffer irrespective of their faith or political outlook.

This would require considerable organisation and planning but could involve charity events, sponsorship events and donations from all manner of organisations including churches, schools, youth clubs and individuals and has the possibility of being televised. The Centre, as a charity and neutral environment dedicated to Parick’s story and his message of reconciliation, would like to be the home of the charitable organisation which would need to be set up to coordinate and administer these efforts, which would be province-wide. Senior representatives from all of our main traditions will be required to steer this new body.

Tim presented us with a new book Rediscovering Saint Patrick by Marcus Losac, who advances the theory that Patrick came from Bonnavenna de Tiberio in ancient Brittany. Local tradition says that this was the Bannavem Taburniae, mentioned by Patrick in his Confession, from where he was taken captive and sold into slavery in Ireland. At this time Brittany would have been known as Little Britain, having taken this title over from Ireland itself, though Losac seems unaware of this, as he is of the Cruthin. Ptolemy referred to the larger island as Great Britain (Megale Brettania) and to Ireland as Little Britain (Mikra Brettania) in his work, Almagest (147–148 AD). But certainly Patrick would still be described, according to this theory, as British. Although we will probably never know from whence among the Britains (Brittanniis) he actually came.