The famous evangelical monk St. Patrick spread Christianity in Ireland in the Middle Ages. Adding to his legendary stature is the oft-repeated story that he "drove the snakes out of Ireland."
Seeing a mention of this legend today, I got to thinking about natural history and wondered if there was any evidence that Ireland ever had any snakes in the first place. Turns out someone already thought about this, took a closer looker, and found out: nope.
In particular, no snake skeletons have ever been found among Ireland's extensive fossil record. Also, if there had been snakes on such a large island, current experience suggests you would really need divine intervention on a grand scale to succeed in eradicating them. Much smaller tropical islands naturally free of snakes have been infested with alien species introduced accidentally by humans - having hitched a ride on a ship or even a plane. One really tragic example is Guam where the brown tree snake introduction has devastated the indigenous nesting bird population who have no natural defense against predation by snakes, having evolved over millions of years in their absence.
One nice 'explanation' of the 'drove out the snakes' legend is that the snakes may have been symbolic rather than literal: there are suggestions the local Druids bore snake tattoos - a practice that would have been 'driven out' as people converted to Christianity. It's always nice to find a "reasonable" explanation of something that otherwise just sounds fanciful and contrary to our understanding of natural reality. Of course those who want there to be an impressive miracle to validate the spiritual status of their saintly hero don't mind if the story defies belief. The part about there never having been any snakes there to start with is just a bit inconvenient for the legend, is all...
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