St Patrick’s most incredible feat was to banish each and every Irish snake into the sea after these unarmed reptiles conspired to attack him during his 40-day fast. As a result, it might be surprising that St Patrick’s Day seems to revolve more around drinking alcohol than committing acts of animal abuse, though in a modern society, the latter is thankfully more socially unacceptable and illegal.

If you want to join in, dress to the nines in green and hit your local pub. You can guarantee you won’t be more than ten paces from a standard-issue Guinness foam hat to celebrate the experience an item usually thrown in as an incentive to drink a couple of pints of the black stuff out of respect for St Patrick himself.