St.

Patrick’s Day
Level (A2 - B1) Teacher’s copy
1. Read this text

The 17th March is St. Patrick’s Day and it is

celebrated all over the world especially where
Irish people live, but you don’t have to be Irish
to join in the fun! There are some 80,000,000
people who say they have Irish blood, but less
than 5,000,000 people live in the Republic of
Ireland and under 2,000,000 in Northern
Ireland.
Traditionally people went to holy mass and
then enjoyed the rest of the day with Irish
music and a dinner of boiled bacon and
cabbage with potatoes and finished off with an
Irish coffee. Nowadays, anyone can join in a
parade through any large city around the
world but especially the capital of Ireland,
Dublin and most large American cities. The
river in Chicago is dyed green every year to
remember Ireland’s national colour, but New
York is the largest of all parades with 150,000
walking and 2,000,000 spectators, who often
drink green beer!
St. Patrick’s Breastplate
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart.
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left
hand,
Christ all around me, shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my heart.
Christ be in all hearts thinking about me,
Christ be on all tongues telling of me.
Christ be the vision in eyes that see me,
In ears that hear me Christ ever be. Amen.

2. Prepositions of place

Using St. Patrick’s Breastplate prayer above, find all the prepositions of place and write them on the picture.
There is an example to help you. (Answers below including the revolving arrow)

Christ be/above before me

Christ on my left hand Christ on my right hand

Christ be behind me

Christ beside me

Christ be below me
 3. St. Patrick’s Life

St. Patrick was probably born somewhere in Wales or on the west coast of England at the end of the
4th century. He is one of the most famous saints in the world and helped to Christianise Ireland,
which was pagan. Patrick was a young boy from a Christian family, who wasn’t interested in God
when he was kidnapped by Irish pirates. He became a shepherd looking after sheep and often wished
he had prayed more and could return home. Finally, in a dream he was told to go a get on a ship and
escape. After leaving Ireland he became a priest and eventually a bishop and with another dream he
saw the Irish begging him to preach the Good News. Patrick often battled with the druids, who
believed in thousands of gods. It is said that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity
as there is only one God, but there are three people. The shamrock has one leaf divided into three
parts. From the time St. Patrick died on 17th March around 450 A.D. and for the next 400 years
hundreds of churches were built until the Vikings came.

Quiz questions on St. Patrick’s Day

1. Write a sentence about the three pictures below. (Suggested answers)
a) The shamrock was used by St. Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity.
b) Irish coffee is often drunk after a meal on St. Patrick’s Day.
c) Nowadays you can drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day.

2. What is the population of the whole of Ireland? Almost 7,000,000.

3. How many people watch the largest parade in the world? 2,000,000
Vocabulary list
(in New York). celebrated - ünnepelt

especially - különlegesen
4. How many people say they have Irish blood? 80,000,000.
traditionally - hagyományosan
5. What is a traditional Irish meal? Boiled bacon, cabbage, potatoes.
boiled(bacon)- főtt sonka
6. What prayer did St. Patrick write? St. Patrick’s Breastplate. dyed - festett

7. Why did St. Patrick go to Ireland the second time? He saw in a Christianise - megkeresztelkedik

baptize - megkeresztel
dream the Irish begging him to go back.
priest - pap
8. What is a good way of explaining the Holy Trinity? The shamrock.
eventually - végülis
9. Who did St. Patrick have to fight against? Druids.
divided - megosztott

10. When did St. Patrick start to think about God? As a shepherd. bishop - püspök
 St. Patrick’s Day
Level (A2 - B1) Teacher’s copy

St. Patrick is one of the most celebrated saints in the world for many reasons. Firstly, because he
brought Christianity to Ireland making it the first Western European country to be Christian from
the 5th century. Secondly, because the Irish in America (in the 18th century) wanted to show how
Irish they were as a political motive seeing as though North America was still very British. And last
but not least, the Irish were very Catholic and travelled the world looking for a better life, thus
spreading their religion and culture. Almost every country has an Irish pub and 23 US Presidents
claim Irish ancestry most notably John F. Kennedy and all presidents since him including both
George Bushes, Barack Obama and even Joe Biden. Donald Trump’s mother was actually from
Scotland and breaks the line.

1. You should ask students if they know any parades or special days i.e. St. Stephen’s Day,
Mardi Gras etc. Elicit answers and speak about dressing up at Carnival time as an example.
2. Introduce St. Patrick and Ireland, show pictures if possible and ask them what they know
or who they know.
3. Get them to read the first text and tell them there are some unknown words explained
below in the vocabulary list.
4. Discuss interesting points like food and drink, the numbers and the dying of rivers green.
5. Teach St. Patrick’s Breastplate by explaining prepositions and how God is all around us.
You can also discuss the body parts in the prayer.
6. Get students to fill in no. 2 and ask them to be creative saying there are more possible
answers. Answers are on the picture.
7. Students can now do no.3, but it might be important to show The British Isles and discuss
pagan life with its thousands of gods and the kidnapping of people to be used as slaves,
which was the norm in Roman times.
8. Students can now finish with short or long answers for the quiz questions.