Ireland’s colourful past has thrown focus on some fairly colourful characters who have become key figures in Irish history.

In the gallery of Catholic patron saints, St Patrick is certainly the centrepiece. Yet his story remains a confusing web of fact and fiction, still largely a mystery to scholars 1,500 years on. Traditional dates set St Patrick’s mission to Ireland from 432 to 461. While he was neither the first nor the only significant missionary to walk the Emerald Isle, today’s national patron saint was indisputably at the heart of the rise of Christianity in Ireland. He founded numerous churches during his lifetime, most notably perhaps the Cathedral which bears his name today, St Patrick’s Cathedral. He is also famously reputed to have banished snakes from Ireland. His legacy includes two documents, among them the famous Confessions, written in his old age. While these writings provide some insights into the man behind the legends, they do not enable historians to put together all the pieces of the puzzle – they know that St Patrick was the son of a Roman official and was captured by Irish raiders at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland, where he worked as a slave for six years. Where exactly he had come from, however, remains a mystery, although the general consensus among historians is that he lived in Wales. He is believed to have enjoyed such great popularity that landowners fought over the right to bury him after his death.

Another important figure in the history of Ireland is Padraic Pearse. Born in Dublin in 1879, the chosen president of the provisional Republic, proclaimed at the Easter Rising 1916, went down in history as a martyr for his country. At the funeral of a fellow Fenian, he is reported to have said: ‘Life springs from death; and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations’. Stirring stuff.
Michael Collins was a legendary figure synonymous with the war of independence. Cork-born Collins frustrated the opposition with his ability to elude capture. When signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty he is known to have said ‘I have signed my own death warrant’. He was ambushed and killed by an IRA assassin in 1922, just 20 miles from his birthplace.

Eamon de Valera, the son of Irish-Spanish immigrants, was born in New York in 1882 and brought up in Limerick. One of the commanders of the Easter Rising, he opposed the Treaty of 1921 and was the leader of the ‘emergency government’ during the Civil War. He founded the Fianna Fáil Party and won the elections of 1932, which put him in charge of the country for the best part of 27 years. In 1959, he was elected president of Ireland and re-elected for a second term in 1966. He died two years after retiring from his office in 1975.

These figures, and many others besides, are commemorated in Dublin’s many statues and monuments. In fact, one thing that may strike you is the sheer number of statues and monuments in the city. It seems that on every street or in every park you will see a statue of a famous Irish literary, political or religious figure. Most have an accompanying plaque explaining the figure’s importance in Ireland’s past. You can also get a better understanding of some of Ireland’s key political figures by visiting Kilmainham Gaol.