Woooo! Funny enough, I had just written an article that I posted on /r/AcademicBiblical, on mythological precedents of the St. Patrick snake-banishing legend.

^^^I'm ^^^totally ^^^not ^^^shamelessly ^^^advertising ^^^it

Actually, I had strayed a little beyond my area of expertise in a couple of places - so if any Irish mythologists or hagiologists have any corrective comments, they'd certainly be appreciated!

I was just on facebook and a friend of mine posted a meme. The meme suggested that a race of African pygmies called the Twa made their way up to Northern Ireland and introduced the druidic people there to some of their belief systems and symbols (such as the Uraeus).

Then, when the Romans conquered the island, they enlisted St. Patrick to do away with the pagans who would not assimilate to Christianity. He killed off all the Twa people and many of the other druid pagans in an attempt to secure Christian dominance.

While I can totally see how some semblance of that story could be true (Christian Rome wasn't keen on non-believers and could be quite savage), I have a hard time buying that a hunter-gatherer group of African pygmies could navigate their way to an island in the north Atlantic.

If they could, I'd totally buy them influencing the indigenous cultures there.

I just don't see it happening.

I searched around the web and found nothing. Anyone have any answers?