Lá Fhéile Pádraig: St. Patrick and the Irish Diaspora in East Florida, 1595–1840

Now on exhibit at the St. Augustine and St. Johns County Visitor Information Center!

March 9-April 30, 2026

On March 17, 1600, St. Augustine’s residents marched through the streets in honor of the Feast Day of St. Patrick (Lá Fhéile Pádraig). Music played and cannons fired from the nearby wooden fortress. Only two Irishmen are known to have lived in St. Augustine then. One of them was the priest, Father Ricardo Artur (Richard Arthur), who introduced the devotion. The 1600 procession is among the earliest documented St. Patrick’s Day celebrations anywhere.

While the devotion to St. Patrick was short-lived, the Irish left an enduring legacy in colonial northeast Florida. Lá Fhéile Pádraig explores the region’s historic Irish diaspora, from the first Irishman’s arrival in 1595 to 1840. During this era, hundreds of Irish-born men and women lived in the region—serving as soldiers and priests, merchants and innkeepers, seamstresses and tailors. Three even served as governor decades before Florida became a U.S. territory.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig offers a rare window into the lives of East Florida’s earliest Irish inhabitants.

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