No matter how you choose to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the history of this holiday is certainly worth examining. The original St. Patrick accomplished much more than ridding Ireland of snakes, and he emerged from his pagan roots to become one of Christianity’s best known figures. 

The history of St. Patrick’s Day owes its origins to the Christian church, celebrating St. Patrick’s feast day on what was believed to be the anniversary of his death. Way back in 1737, Irish immigrants living in the US began to celebrate this important holiday, and the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place in 1766 in New York City. 

These annual parades soon gained popularity not only with Irish immigrants but other residents of the city as well, and today the St. Patrick’s Day parade is one of the most popular and most well attended events in the city. These days St. Patrick’s Day parades are held throughout the country, with Irish and non-Irish residents alike enjoying the comraderie, the festive floats and of course lots of Irish treats. 

Despite the fun and frivolity of the St. Patrick’s Day parades and other celebrations, this holiday has its roots deeply embedded in the world of Christianity. Even today, the country of Ireland celebrates St. Patrick’s Day primarily as a religious holiday. This religious ferver spread even to the famous Irish pubs, and as late as the 1970’s all pubs in Ireland were ordered closed on March 17. 

As time went by, however, the Irish government began to see the tourist opportunities of this uniquely Irish holiday. Beginning in the mid-1990’s the Irish government started a campaign to use the holiday to drive tourism to the island, and this strategy has worked very well. Close to one million people visit Ireland each year to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day where the holiday first got its start. 

In Legend

Some Irish legends involve the Oilliphéist, the Caoránach, and the Copóg Phádraig. During his evangelising journey back to Ireland from his parent’s home at Birdoswald, he is understood to have carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on. 

The 12th century work Acallam na Senórach tells of Patrick being met by two ancient warriors, Caílte mac Rónáin and Oisín, during his evangelical travels. The two were once members of Fionn mac Cumhaill’s warrior band the Fianna, and somehow survived to Patrick’s time. They traveled with the saint and told him their stories. 

Saint Patrick’s Bell

Although today, one or two of the jewels are missing as well as some of the panels of Celtic artwork, full appreciation of the workmanship in the shrine is still possible and it is kept, along with St. Patrick’s Bell, in glittering condition by the National Museum as a priceless national treasure. The bell itself is simple in design, hammered into shape with a small handle fixed to the top with rivets. Originally forged from iron, it has since been coated in bronze. The shrine is inscribed with three names, including O’Loughlin’s. The rear of the shrine, not intended to be seen, is decorated with crosses while the handle is decorated with, among other work, celtic designs of birds. The bell is accredited with working a miracle in 1044 and having been coated in bronze to shield it from humans eyes for which it would be too holy. 

Sainthood and Remembrance

He had for his parents Calphurnius and Conchessa. The former belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. Conchessa was a near relative of the great patron of Gaul, St. Martin of Tours. Kilpatrick still retains many memorials of Saint Patrick, and frequent pilgrimages continued far into the Middle Ages to perpetuate there the fame of his sanctity and miracles.  

In his sixteenth year, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftan named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland, where for six years he tended his master’s flocks in the valley of the Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena. He relates in his “Confessio” that during his captivity while tending the flocks he prayed many times in the day: “the love of God”, he added, “and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me. “ 

In the ways of a benign Providence the six years of Patrick’s captivity became a remote preparation for his future apostolate. He acquired a perfect knowledge of the Celtic tongue in which he would one day announce the glad tidings of Redemption, and, as his master Milchu was a druidical high priest, he became familiar with all the details of Druidism from whose bondage he was destined to liberate the Irish race. 

March 17, popularly known as St. Patrick’s Day, is believed to be his death date and is the date celebrated as his feast day. The day became a feast day in the universal church due to the influence of the Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding, as a member of the commission for the reform of the Breviary in the early part of the 17th century. 

For most of Christianity’s first thousand years, canonisations were done on the diocesan or regional level. Relatively soon after the death of people considered to be very holy people, the local Church affirmed that they could be liturgically celebrated as saints. As a result, St. Patrick has never been formally canonised by a Pope; nevertheless, various Christian churches declare that he is a Saint in Heaven (he is in the List of Saints). He is still widely venerated in Ireland and elsewhere today. 

St. Patrick is also venerated in the Orthodox Church, especially among English-speaking Orthodox Christians living in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland and in North America. There are Orthodox icons dedicated to him.

Legend has it that if a Leprechaun comes across a decorated treasure box under the moon, he must fill it with gold, jewels or gifts. After filling the box with loot, the leprechaun then hides it in hopes that no one will find it on St. Patrick’s Day because if it is found on St. Patrick’s Day the treasure belongs to whoever found it and remains in our world. If the treasure is not found on St. Patrick’s Day, then the leprechaun may retrieve what is rightfully his.

The box should be small enough for a tiny leprechaun to reach over the sides in order to fill it. If it is too big, the leprechaun won’t be able to fill it with riches and it will remain empty. An empty tissue box, a shoe box or a small treasure box from the craft store are the perfect size for leprechauns to work with.

Bring out the glitter, paint, glue, buttons, ribbon, stickers and other craft supplies. Let your child decorate the box in whatever way he or she is inspired to do. The gaudier it is, the better to attract leprechauns. Allow to dry.

Just before bedtime, help your child find a spot where the moon will shine on the box over night. It could be a windowsill or on the front porch.

Overnight, while the child is asleep, a leprechaun will stumble across the box and fill it with treasure. (Hint, hint – this is where you come in.) Choose goodies such as chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, bubble solution, trading cards, a bag of marbles, costume jewelry and other little items your child enjoys. Next hide the box because, remember, leprechauns are tricky and they want to keep the treasure for themselves. Leave little clues in the form of a shamrock trail leading to the hiding spot or a riddle to solve.

The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns is a 1999 Hallmark Entertainment made-for-TV fantasy movie. It stars Randy Quaid, Colm Meaney, Kieran Culkin, Roger Daltrey and Whoopi Goldberg. The film contains two main stories that eventually intertwine: the first being the story of an American businessman who visits Ireland and encounters magical leprechauns, the second being the story of a pair of star-crossed lovers who happen to be a fairy and a leprechaun, belonging to opposing sides of a magical war.

The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns – Based on the Irish folk tale characters of leprechauns and fairies, this imaginative two-part made for TV miniseries was produced by Hallmark for the NBC network in 1999.

The story follows an American businessman Jack Woods (Randy Quaid) who has come to the Emerald Isle with a hidden agenda. He wants to develop a large chunk of pristine land in the Irish countryside into a golf course. But low and behold, when he takes up residence in one of the small cottages on the land, he discovers it is inhabited by none other than a leprechaun and his wife.

Colm Meaney (of Star Trek Fame) plays Seamus Muldoon, the red-bearded leprechaun whom Jack Woods rescued from the water (Leprechauns hate water) and so was beholding to his benefactor.

The story becomes complicated when Jack falls in love with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, a local raven-haired beauty who spends her time caring for her grown brothers, who can’t seem to make a decision on the own.

At its core, the miniseries combines the romantic sentiment of classic movie The Quiet Man (1952) starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara with the dynamic story of forbidden love found in Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. All in all, the movie is a gentle, fun frolic, filled with Irish history, folklore and lush green countryside. It’s well worth a look see.

A beautiful story, that captures the legends of Leprechauns with a touch of innocence. Even though this movie is now over 10 years old, it will provide hours of timeless entertainment for you, your children and family. 5 Golden Stars from CelticRadio.net:

The story is told from the point-of-view of Fiona — played by Jeni Courtney — a young girl who is sent to live with her grandparents in an Irish fishing village. Her grandfather weaves tall tales about the family’s evacuation from their home on the tiny island of Roan Inish and his great-great grandfather, who once cheated death at the hands of the sea. As she meets other villagers, Fiona hears more personal stories about an ancestor who married a beautiful, part-human/part-seal, and more about how the sea stole her baby brother during the departure from Roan Inish. Later, Fiona believes that she has found Jamie romping in the grass on Roan Inish, and she must convince the family of her vision.

Although in the original novel the story takes place in Sotland, the filmmakers decided to have the film take place in Ireland for practical reasons.  Critic Stephen Holden, of The New York Times, liked the film’s direction. He wrote, “The Secret of Roan Inish is the first film directed by Mr. Sayles that could be described as visually rhapsodic. Photographed by Haskell Wexler on Ireland’s rugged northwestern seacoast, it is a cinematic tone poem in which man and nature, myth and reality flow together in a way that makes them ultimately indivisible.

A beautiful story, that captures the selkie legend with a touch of innocence. 5 Golden Stars from CelticRadio.net:

After Gregor’s metamorphosis, his family, once totally dependent upon Gregor for all of their financial needs, begins to undergo a metamorphosis of their own. While the family undergoes their own metamorphosis, they begin to see Gregor in a different light. They were all mortified at Gregor’s transformation to a bug, but they at least initially tolerated the fact that he was living under the same roof. The sister kept Gregor’s room clean and provided him with food and drink. His mother, while never able to handle looking at Gregor, helps her daughter rearrange Gregor’s room so he can better climb the walls. For a while, it seems that this could go on indefinitely, but when the family realizes that keeping Gregor was becoming more and more of a liability and disrupting their newly found life, they become agitated with his predicament and finally reject him. Even his sister, who at first seems to be Gregor’s only provider, wonders why Gregor just won’t leave. Finally, his room is reduced to a storage closet where all of the family’s undesirables are kept. Gregor dies alone, unwanted and a shell of what he once was.

After Gregor’s death, the family feels a great sense of relief. While you might think the family would mourn or regret the death of their son (or what use to be him) the father states, “now thanks be to God.” In fact, it is as if a great burden has been released from the Samsa’s lives. The father, mother and daughter, arm in arm, enter a new day. As Kafka describes, “a certain softness was perceptible in the fresh air.” On that day they decided to go on a trip to the countryside where they contemplate their futures and ponder the prospects of a husband for their daughter. While it is hard to imagine that they did not miss Gregor during his human life, they certainly were relieved that the responsibility of taking care of Gregor, the bug, was over.

The relief felt by the Samsa family can be compared to the relief felt by a family that has experienced the death of a relative, after caring for their terminal illness. Take for example my wife. When she was 17, she was given the job of caring for her terminal ill mother who was suffering from colon cancer. Although the doctor’s intentions were good, her mother ended up a quadriplegic after surgery to remove the cancer. My wife’s four older brothers, always the pride of her mothers, suddenly did not want to come by the house for a visit. My wife remembers a time when her mother, overweight prior to becoming a quadriplegic, fell out of bed and needed to be lifted back into bed by four police offers. My wife recalls another time when she was sick of fixing her mother’s pillows and told her to “fix her damn pillows herself!” By the time my wife’s mother passed away, her sole purpose was to take care of her mother, 24 hours a day with little or no help from the rest of her family. When death came, it was greeted with grief and despair, but with relief that my wife could resume with living her life. As I asked my wife about her experience, I noted similarities in Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis.’ The most significant is my wife’s comments that her mother would look out the window often, such as Kafta describes about Gregor, “obviously in some recollection of the sense of freedom that looking out of a window always used to give him.”

The Metamorphosis is much more than just a story about a man that turns into a bug, it symbolizes the changes that occur in relationships when sickness inflicts a once healthy and vibrant individual of the family. Take for example Gregor prior to his Metamorphosis. He labors unselfishly for his family’s welfare and puts the needs of his family first. Although his family does love him, their experience of dealing with his ‘bug’ problem changes how they view and treat him. The same can be said of my wife’s mother. All of her life she helped people and sheltered kids in her home, but when illness struck, the relationships with her family changed similar to Gregors. The relief felt by Gregor’s family and my wife are similar because both were under a tremendous amount of pressure to provide care for the person who once cared for them. When death came, it was viewed as a new beginning. The Metamorphosis, above all, shows us how difficult a terminal illness is, not only for the person it effects, but also for the family and friends of the individual affected. Kafka’s story not only teaches us about death and the terminally ill, it should give us a greater appreciation for the people that have provided care or love to us. In other words, we should not take for granite the people that are most important to us. If we do, we might find ourselves in the shoes of Gregor’s family!

The squeeze box is compatible with Live365, so hooking up to any one of Celtic Radio’s five channels is as easy as clicking the remote button of the squeeze box. Configuration of this device is a breeze. It auto-detects networks and hooking up to your own local wireless network takes only a few minutes (and that is without reading the manual). The sound quality is amazing with rock-solid network performance (no network issues or waiting for the station to load). The size of the squeeze box is impressively sleek and fits beautifully and proudly in with any of your other home theater equipment. Not only can you play thousands of Internet Radio stations, but this unit can sync up with your own music collection on your home PC through an intuitive software application called Slimserver. Again, the theme here is “easy to configure” and the software holds true to that description. The wonderful engineers of Logictech have even included versions to run on Linux, Mac and Windows making this one of the most versatile products available for Wi-Fi music.

Product Description:
Squeezebox is the affordable way to deliver music into every room of your home. It plays a wide variety of digital music files, including uncompressed and lossless formats — across a true 802.11g wireless network connection. Squeezebox will revolutionize the way you listen by freeing you and your music. Its convenient and stylish form makes it ideal for placing in any room, whether connected to an existing Hi-Fi system or simply powered speakers. By utilizing true 802.11g Wi-Fi networking and dual internal antennas, your listening is no longer restricted by cables and connectors. Squeezebox offers you the widest choice of listening options beyond your digital media collection. The product includes a directory of thousands of internet radio stations and features Pandora’s personalized music service and Rhapsody’s 2 million song collection. All internet music streaming services are even available when your computer is turned off.

Technical Details:

• Lossless Formats (Apple Lossless, FLAC, WMA Lossless) and Uncompressed formats (AIFF, WAV, PCM).
• Compressed formats (MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, MP2, MusePack, WMA).
• Bridging capability allows Ethernet devices to connect to the network through Squeezebox Wireless.
• True 802.11g wireless networking.
• “Always-on” Internet Radio, powered by mysqueezebox.com, lets you tune in to Internet Radio streams even when the home PC is switched off.

Play the music you want, where you want it:
Enjoy a world of music in your living room, bedroom, home office, kitchen—anywhere in your home. Add more Squeezebox Wi-Fi music players and listen to a different song in any room in your home, or synchronize them all together to hear the same music everywhere. You can also use the Squeezebox Controller to control the entire family of Squeezebox players throughout your home.

Perfect in any room:
The auto-dimming display adjusts for any lighting condition and is readable from across a room. The aqua-blue display features an integrated light sensor that complements ambient lighting—so it’s never too bright, or too dim.

Wake to your personal soundtrack:
With Squeezebox Boom’s seven-day alarm, you’ll wake up to your favorite playlist, Internet radio station, or nature sound—you can even choose something different for each day of the week. Or use the convenient sleep mode to automatically turn off your music. A built-in backup helps keep your alarm settings for up to two weeks if your Boom is unplugged.

Enjoy crystal clear sound big enough for any room in your home:
The high performance signal processor, class D amplifiers, and digital crossover all work in concert to deliver stunning audio quality. Squeezebox Boom’s high-speed 802.11g wireless technology, secure connectivity options, and dual internal antennas eliminate the need to run any wires. Squeezebox Boom plays virtually any digital music format, including MP3, FLAC, WMA, WMA Lossless, AAC, Apple Lossless, WAV, and AIFF.

Works on the follow Internet Radio Services:

Overview/Review:
 The workmanship, design and easy of use earns the Squeeze Box Wi-Fi Internet Radio a 5 Star review from Celtic Radio. This system is a real genius of innovation by the folks from logictech. An impressive compilation of technology, internet and music to give you many hours of enjoyment. Now Go Wireless!

In this inspiring sermon Saint Bernard exhorted young men to join the Knights Templar, a monastic military order formed at the end of the First Crusade to protect Christian pilgrims on route to the Holy Land. These knights have recently been in the news because of the popular book, The De Vinci Code, a mystery involving the bloodline of Jesus, the Knights, and the Holy Grail.

For an idealistic younger son unable to claim an inheritance because of the rule of primogeniture this was a prestigious and altruistic way of life. (This rule required that the family’s land would be left to the eldest son.) Chastity seemed a small price to pay to join this Order, founded in 1118 by Hugh de Payens and eight companions from Champagne and Provence.

Poor Beginnings
The first Crusade began when Alexius Comnenus, Emperor of Byzantium, wrote to Pope Urban III requesting help to repel the Turks from the Eastern part of his Empire. The Pope seized this opportunity to save the Holy Land from the Moslems and men flocked to fight for Jerusalem. After three difficult years the Crusaders gained control of Jerusalem. Pilgrims could at last travel to the land where their Savior was born, but both the land routes and the sea ways were very dangerous. The route through Constantinople, Nicea and Antioch was beset by bands of highway robbers and the sea routes were roamed by pirates eager to take possession of ships and capture slaves.  Originally called The Poor Knights of Christ, the Templars at first escorted pilgrims from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, living on the alms they received. Later they protected the route from the Mediterranean Coast to Jerusalem, providing safe escorts for Christian pilgrims. They had no habit or rule.

Ascent to Power
In 1128 the luck of the ‘Warrior Monks” as they were nicknamed changed. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, called the Second Pope, and the chief spokesman of Christendom at that time, gained the Pope’s backing for these knights with whom he was greatly impressed. “First of all, there is discipline and unqualified obedience…they live in a community, soberly and in joy, without wife and children…Never overdressed, they bathe rarely, and are dirty and hirsute, tanned by the coat of mail and the sun.” he said. (They don’t sound too attractive – not my idea of ‘knights in shining amour’!) The Rule of Saint Benedict was approved and they now had a habit – a white mantle emblazoned with a red cross.

The Knights were now immune from all authority except the Pope’s and exempt from taxes and even tithes. They also gained great wealth from the possessions of new recruits who had to sign their worldly goods to the Order, donations flooding in, and the ownership of land which included much of London and grand temples in Paris and Jerusalem. There are still remarkable ruins of castles built by the Knights in the Holy Land. In 1307 they even bought Yorkshire for the very cheap price of 1300 pounds and for a time they owned Cyprus. The Knights virtually invented banking, getting around the rule against usury, and lending money to monarchs and merchants. The clergy of the Holy Land disliked the Knight’s privileges and power because the revenue of their churches had been diminished, as the Knight’s revenues grew.

The Knights were considered brave soldiers, the scourge of the Moslems, and fought alongside King Richard the First and other famous monarchs. Their courage in dying for their religion unfortunately led to a large decimation of their numbers. If they were taken prisoner they refused to deny Christ, and many died martyrs. Almost 20,000 may have died in the wars.

Decline
In 1314 Philip the Fair (perhaps that should be unfair?) annoyed by the Knight’s influence and power, and needing money for his war against England, decided to destroy the Knights. The secret initiation ceremonies and meetings of the Templars gave him the means to do this. Gaining the Pope’s support, he charged them with heresy, accusing them of blasphemy and homosexuality among other things, so that he could seize their money and assets. Many confessed under dreadful tortures and most were burnt at the stake.

The last Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake, before the gates of the palace. According to legend de Molay cursed King Philip and Pope Clement as he burned saying that both men would join him within a year. Clement died one month later and Philip IV seven months after Clement.

Donovan is a staunch Irishman, with a temper, who has obviously been a soldier for sometime. Based on Bonaparte’s observation, Donovan appears to be a farmer by trade, a big man who wears a small cloth hat and seldom has his hands out of his pockets. As a character, Donovan does not change throughout the story, but maintains his continued duty as a patriotic soldier of the Irish army. Even when Belcher and Hawkins poise no threat of escaping and causing any problems, Donovan scolds Bonaparte for following him into the village and tells him he should be guarding the prisoners. Donovan does not display any hatred towards Belcher and Hawkins. When he admits to Bonaporte that, “I thought you knew we were keeping them as hostages” this would indicate that Donovan had been involved in hostage taking in the past. It makes perfect sense to Donovan that if the enemy shoots prisoners belonging to them, then they will shoot Belcher and Hawkins. While this would make sense to a solider of war, Bonaparte tries to explain the difference in the situation, but does not because he knew Donovan would not understand. Bonaparte makes the analogy that “If it was only an old dog that was going to the vet’s, you’d try and not get too fond of him, but Jeremiah Donovan wasn’t a man that would ever be in danger of that.”

 Through out the story, Donovan keeps his distance from Belcher and Hawkins. Although he supervises the card games between Belcher, Hawkins, Noble and Bonaporte, he hardly played in the game. In fact, Bonaparte does not even notice Donovan’s apparent lack of interest in Noble and Hawkins. Not until after Bonaparte has befriended the two British men does it occur to him that Donovan “had no great love for the two Englishmen.” Donovan, as a solider of the war, realizes that he can not befriend the enemies, as he knows what their ultimate fate is. Noble and Bonaparte do not realize this and Donovan, so consumed with the duty of country and war, does not warn them of the possibility of execution until it was too late and the doomed friendship had already begun.

When word of the execution of the four Irish lads comes, Donovan wastes no time in proceeding with executing Belcher and Hawkins. The impact the war has had on Donovan shines through when he angrily tells Bonaparte that he wants “those two soldier friends of yours”, as if almost expecting resistance from Bonaparte. Donovan tries his best to explain to Belcher and Hawkins that he is only doing “his duty”, that he holds nothing against them, but he makes a point to Hawkins when he says, “but why did your people take out four of our prisoners and shoot them in cold blood?” He then takes Hawkins by the arm and drags him along. Through out the execution Donovan asks each man for any last words and last prayers, then quickly executes each of them with a shot to the head.  Donovan, without emotion or regret, performed the executions quickly and without hesitation. His actions speak louder than words. Numb to what he was about to do, he makes sure that he tells both victims that he is only doing this because of duty, as if that is the justification of which he basis the executions on.

‘Guests of the Nation” is a powerful story that teaches us what war is really all about – killing. When Noble and Bonaparte become soldiers, they desire the excitement of the battlefield and to help defeat the British in their political rule over Ireland. Both of them are naive to what war is really about. The last place they wanted to be was guarding two prisoners of war that seemed to be more intent on being their friend, than being their enemy. Donovan, the seasoned soldier, knows what the war is about and knows that the prisoners are the enemy and are to be dealt with as enemies. He keeps his distance from them and when it comes time to perform his duty, he does so. On the other hand are Noble and Bonaparte who have not experienced the cruelty of war. They do not understand, as Donovan does, that war is about people being killed, just like themselves. From a distance, the enemy seems real, vicious and does not regard human life. But up close, you find out that the enemy is no different than you and I. ‘Guests of the Nation’ personifies this and provides insight into how a war can change a person, from the green and naive Bonaparte, to the seasoned soldier of war, Donovan. In the end, Bonaparte would become like Donovan because he was numbed by the cruelty of war. As Bonaparte states after the executions had taken place, “And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again.”

In the summer of 1692 terror reigned in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. On the word of several young girls in the village, who were exhibiting strange behaviour that they said was brought on by witchcraft, many of the townsfolk were brought to the prison and tried on the charge of witchcraft. There was no-one exempt from the adolescents’ accusing fingers. Popular people, professional people, men, women and even children were brought before the court and interrogated.

First to be accused was Tituba, the Carib Indian slave belonging to Reverend Samuel Parris. Along with Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne were also arrested. Of these, only Tituba confessed to witchcraft – and remarkably, of the three, she was the only one to survive!

The youngest of the accused was four years old. Imagine the horror that little girl, Dorcas Good – daughter of Sarah Good, must have felt to be CHAINED to the wall of the rat-infested prison for almost 10 months before she was found not guilty – but not before she watched her mother convicted and taken to the gallows to be hung. In the period that her mother was imprisoned, her sibling also died – a child that Sarah was still nursing was taken to the prison with her but died before Sarah was hung.

In total 19 of those accused of witchcraft were hanged on Gallows Hill. 13 of the convicted were women, and 6 of them men. Giles Corey, also died as a result of the trials – he was pressed to death when refusing to plead guilty or otherwise. His wife was hanged for witchcraft 3 days after his death. Although prison records offer conflicting information, it is thought that as many as 13 other accused people died in prison during the witch trials. Between 100 and 200 people were arrested on charges of witchcraft – and two dogs executed.

Who was to blame for this gross miscarriage of justice, created by ignorance and fear? Perhaps it was the physician who could not identify what illness Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams (aged 9 and 11 respectively) had which caused them to have convulsions, trance-like states and other strange behaviour. His diagnosis was therefore to suggest that they were under Satan’s influence. Perhaps it was Tituba who created the “witch cake” that was made up of rye meal and urine from the sick girls and given to a dog to eat in the hope that the witch who had inflicted the girls would be identified. It was also Tituba who confessed to witchcraft and then gave evidence against Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and others. Perhaps it was the young girls themselves – not only Abigail and Elizabeth, but also Ann Putnum, Elizabeth Hubbard, Susannah Sheldon, Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren – who were guilty of mischievously accusing anyone who had crossed them? Perhaps it was the townspeople who allowed hysteria to override commonsense and set one neighbour up to accuse his/her neighbour of witchcraft because they did not conform to normal social standards or because the butter turned sour after one of the accused had visited . Perhaps it was the court that allowed hearsay and malicious gossip convict and kill innocent people. Perhaps it was the laws that covered the court and said the trials were “legal”. Whoever or whatever was to blame, the outcome was the same. Many innocent people were condemned to death – and their sentences carried out – whilst many others spent months in prison needlessly and never recovered from their experience.

In 1697 Samual Sewall, one of the judges in the witch trials publicly confessed to the wrong doing he had helped to escalate, and offered an apology to the relatives of those who had died. The matter has never been allowed to die however. In 1706 Ann Putnam apologised for her actions during the summer of 1692. In 1711, a bill was passed through the legislature that restored the names of those accused, and gave £600 in restitution to their heirs – this included money for those like Dorcas Good who never recovered from her ordeal and required to be looked after for the rest of her life. In 1957 the State of Massachusetts formally apologised, and in 1992, a memorial to the witch trials was dedicated in Salem – now renamed “Danvers”.

Those who died needlessly have not died quietly. Their memory lives on, not only in the minds of their generations of relatives that followed them, but also those who strive to prevent such an atrocity happening again.

“I am no witch. I am innocent. I know nothing of it.” Bridget Bishop, first of Salem’s accused to be hanged on June 10th 1692.

When Mircea died, his crown did not immediately pass to his descendants. The leader was elected by the boyars, the highest rank of the nobility. Vlad’s father was Mircea’s illegitimate son. Since Mircea had no legitimate heirs, his brother Dan II, contested the senior Vlad’s right to rule. The elder Vlad married Cneajna Musati, the daughter of King Alexandru cel Brun (Alexander the Kind) of the kingdom of Moldova. They had three sons. Vlad III was their youngest.

The year that Vlad III was born, his father, who had been brought up in the Hungarian court of King Sigismund of Hungary, was made governor of Transylvania. Previously, he had been inducted by the same Sigismund into the Order of the Dragon, a secret order of knights that were supposed to defend Christianity against the Ottoman Turks. 

Because of his father’s involvement with the Order of the Dragon, Vlad III became known as Dracula, “The Son of the Dragon”. His father became known as Vlad Dracul. In 1436, Vlad Dracul killed the Danesti king, Alexandru I Aldea (he came after Dan II, the very man who originally opposed Vlad’s first attempt at kingship). Then, Vlad II crowned himself King of Wallachia.

Vlad II didn’t have an easy reign. He was both a liege of the Hungarian king and subject to paying tribute to the Ottoman Turks. In 1442, he was accused by Hungary’s new king, Ulaszlo I, of failing to defend Wallachia from the Turks. He was ousted. Vlad II appealed to the Ottoman sultan, Murad II, for help. He regained his throne but was forced to give the Ottoman his two youngest sons, Radu the Handsome and Vlad Dracula. Vlad Dracula was only 13 at the time.

Dracula spent the next four years as a prisoner of the Ottomans. During that time, there was a crusade against the Turks. Vlad’s dad sent his oldest son, Mircea, to fight for Hungary and hoped it wouldn’t anger the Turks. This upset the powerful Hungarian warlord, John Hunyadi, as well as the Hungarian king. After the Hungarians lost the Crusade of Varna, Vlad and his oldest son, Mircea, were killed. A puppet king ruled in their stead.

The Turks released Dracula at this time (1448). They gave him an army with the intent that he would overthrow this new king. He got the throne but, in the fashion of the time, didn’t keep it very long. By the end of 1448, he was living in exile in Moldavia. The Hungarians put back their puppet ruler, Vladislav II.

Three years into his exile, Prince Bogdan of Moldavia was assassinated. That kingdom was thrown into turmoil. Vlad Dracula fled and sought shelter in John Hunyadi’s court. Although Hunyadi was his family’s enemy, Vlad Dracula and he now had a common enemy, Vladislav II. Yes. Vladislav had recently begun implementing pro-Turkish policies which angered Hunyadi and the Hungarian court.

Dracula became Hunyadi’s vassal. Hunyadi presented him as the Hungarian candidate for the kingship of Wallachia. He remained in Transylvania for several more years, under Hunyadi’s protection before retaking Wallachia in 1456. That same year, Hunyadi led an unsuccessful campaign against the Turks, to whom Constantinople fell in 1453. Hunyadi’s failure would impact Vlad’s successes. He would only rule Wallachia until 1462 when the Turks laid siege to his castle. During that siege, Dracula’s first wife committed suicide so as not to be captured by the Turks.

Dracula escaped and became a prisoner of the Hungarian King, Matthias Corvinus (Hunyadi’s son). He was held in a tower at one point; but, towards the end of his imprisonment, he had married a cousin of the Hungarian King, Ilona Szilagy. They eventually struck an agreement to return Vlad to the throne. Interestingly enough, Vlad’s older brother, Radu, was King of Wallachia during this time. Vlad’s return to the throne was accomplished in 1475; however, Dracula would not remain there long. He was murdered during a battle yet under suspicious circumstances in 1477. Some say that the bogyars, perhaps led by Radu or inspired by revenge, had him killed.

Of course, this confusing but basic history doesn’t really explain where Dracula got his reputation from does it?

During his lifetime, Vlad was known for his brutality. He enjoyed impaling people. Legend has it that he began impaling rats while a teenager in the Turkish prisons. One account says that he had impaled over 20,000 men, women and children and left them on the battlefield so that the Turks could see his cruelty. Of course, many of these stories are exaggerated and perhaps even fabricated.

But, there is still some truth to the fact that he was a bit on the blood-thirsty side.

On Easter Sunday of 1457, Vlad, who had just reclaimed the throne of Wallachia a year before, invited the bogyars (nobles) to an elaborate Easter feast. After their meal, his soldiers rounded up the able-bodied and marched them to Poenari to build his castle. Those that survived the arduous construction process were then impaled.

In fact, even minor transgressions in his kingdom were punishable by death. Thieves and adulterers were subject to the stake. So were the poor. One story distributed via a German pamphlet in the late 15th century mentions that he invited a group of beggars to his castle. He had them all burned so that no one would be poor in his lands. Those merchants he thought that had ignored his trade laws would often find their towns raided; and, in some cases, burned to the ground. He did not discriminate between man, woman, or child. All were subject to his punishments.

Another story says that he nailed a turban to the head of a Turkish emissary from the Ottoman sultan when the man refused to remove his turban from his head in the Wallachian king’s presence. Other rumors say that Vlad would often eat while watching his victims’ die. Others say he even drank their blood or at their flesh. It does seem that impaled bodies often surrounded the king in his banquet hall.

Although Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula tells the story of a Transylvanian noble, it has become quite clear in recent years that Stoker didn’t base his story on any particular historical figure. He used an amalgam of a bunch of these old wives’ tales and legends from the region. It so happens that this blood-thirsty Romanian noble of the latter 15th century, gets the credit for being the ultimate blood-drinker, a vampire we still fear and desperately want to believe in.

To the Romanian people, however, Vlad Tepes has become somewhat of a national hero. He is the man who united Wallachia and tried to keep foreign influences i.e., Hungarian and Turk, out of his realm. He is credited by many as the father of the modern Romanian state; and, his memory was revamped and revitalized in Romania during the time of Ceausescu.

Whatever the truth is, the fact remains that Dracula is a myth that has grown above and beyond any one historical figure. Vampires are part of our Halloween lore and legend. To some, the truth is scarier – and stranger – than the fiction; however.

By Deanna Couras Goodson