St Piran's Day

Yesterday was St Piran's Day, celebrating all things Cornish. I received an email from Cornwall Council reminding me, and telling me that I could identify as Cornish nationality on the census form due in the next few days. I guess there are all kinds of options on the form for me to identify as. I'll let you know when it arrives.

cornishcottageholidays.co.uk tells me "Across Cornwall there are parades, dancing, singing and music to honour the Cornish patron saint.". Not so much where I live.

St Piran was a 4th/5th/6th [uncertain] century Irish abbot. He was exiled by the KIngs of Ireland and arrived near Newquay [where he no doubt enjoyed much carousing, as you do]. The place became Perranporth (Piran's Bay).

According to cornishcottageholidays.co.uk, "St Piran was also known for liking a good drink, which is where the phrase ‘as drunk as a Perraner’ is believed to have come from. Legend has it he survived to the grand old age of 206 years old.". I always said Proper Job was a strong beer!

St Piran was involved in the discovery of tin and is therefore the patron saint of tin miners and, by extension, all miners and all of us in Cornwall. catholicreadings.org is unable to say when or by whom he was beatified.

Here's a group of my mates singing the Cornish National Anthem yesterday:

Stirring stuff, I think you will agree.