Notre Dame Dublin and Newman Centre host new St. Patrick RTÉ documentary premiere

"My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person. I am looked down upon by many." - Saint Patrick, Confessio 1

On March 13, the University of Notre Dame Dublin and the Notre Dame Newman Centre for Faith and Reason hosted the world premiere of Patrick: A Slave to Ireland, a new documentary by filmmaker Ruán Magan, produced by RTÉ, BBC, and Arte with support from Tourism Ireland.

In a challenge to the conventional narrative, this epic documentary places British-born Saint Patrick in his European context and shows how Ireland’s patron saint was part of a radical Christian movement that converted not only the Irish at the edge of the earth, but also large swathes of Europe, to Christianity. The documentary vividly brings to life the pre-Christian culture that preceded Patrick’s arrival in Ireland and reveals how the Irish church he founded became a catalyst in reseeding classical learning, science and philosophy throughout Europe.

The premiere event opened with remarks from the British Ambassador to Ireland Paul Johnston, who spoke to the sold-out audience in Newman University Church, reflecting on Patrick’s identity as a wealthy Romano-Briton who chose to return to the land where he was once enslaved.

“He was a victim of what we now would call modern slavery,” Ambassador Johnston said of Patrick. “He was trafficked. He was a migrant. He was all of these things that are now talked about in rather impersonal terms, but he was a person. And he was an amazing person who did an amazing amount for Ireland, not least in creating this fantastic culture with a love of literature, a love of learning, a love of the spoken word.”

Director Ruán Magan introduced the film, offering insights into the production, the contributors, and their aim to strip away centuries of myth-making to uncover the real Patrick—a slave, in exile, a survivor of trauma, and a man who, by the end of his life, was dejected and convinced that he had failed in his mission to spread Christianity.

“It’s kind of incredible how the Irish story draws such a massive audience,” Magan said in reference to the series of Irish history and culture documentaries his production company Create One has made, from the Famine to the history of Irish dance. Patrick: A Slave to Ireland will reach around 5 million people in Ireland, the UK, and Europe this March, before being distributed globally.

Before the screening, attendees were treated to a powerful medley from the film’s score by composer Natasa Paulberg, performed by the Kaleidoscope Night String Quintet, and a haunting rendition of “St. Patrick’s Breastplate” / “The Deer’s Cry” by Megan O’Neill, a member of the Newman Vocare Ensemble.

The documentary, narrated by actor Ciarán Hinds, proved to be a compelling portrait of Patrick—not as the triumphant, shamrock-wielding and snake-driving saint of legend, but as a complex and often embattled man who was attempting to evangelize through an extremely hierarchical, disparate network of regional kingdoms in a pre-Christian, Gaelic Ireland of which he was foreign.

There are two major surviving texts of Patrick’s own writing from the fifth century upon which scholars contributing to the documentary drew: his Confessio (Confession) and the Epistola ad Milites Corotici (Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus).

Elva Johnston, associate professor of history at University College Dublin, shares that from his Confessio, we can see that Patrick’s life was shaped by conflict and self-doubt. He was forced to navigate opposition from the British ecclesiastical establishment, political uncertainty in Ireland, and his own personal struggles with sin and temptation.

"I am a slave, of a foreign people, for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord." - Saint Patrick, Confessio 1

Patrick’s trauma is a central theme of the documentary. Kidnapped as a teenager and enslaved in Ireland for six years, he later escapes and returns to Britain where he studied to become a priest. only to hear God’s call beckoning him to return to the land of his captivity. The film explores the psychological weight of his experience, emphasizing that his writings were not just declarations of faith but deeply personal attempts to reconcile his past with his current mission.

“I think it’s really cool that our patron saint is someone like Patrick, who is, to use a pejorative modern term, a non-national. That he is someone who’s not from within the restrictive Irish system. He is someone who is disenfranchised. He’s a migrant,” says Dr. Niamh Whycherley, assistant professor of early Irish history at Maynooth University. “So when someone like Patrick comes in and is preaching a society and a religion in which you are equal to men and slaves are equal to kings. That’s a mind-blowing perspective.”

From the documentary we see how Patrick’s decision to return to the land of his captivity had seismic repercussions for the Irish and for Europe as a whole. In Ireland, Patrick’s Christianity united the divided Irish tribal kingdoms under the umbrella of a new culture.

“Christianity in Ireland from the get-go had a very strong focus on education. So when Patrick came into new communities, what was he carrying? He had to be carrying the Bible,” Kevin Whelan, professor of Irish history at the University of Notre Dame muses. “How would you understand literacy if you had never seen a book? He must have seemed magical, strange, other worldly, must have seemed to have some secret or occult power. He must have appeared like he was a superior druid, because he now had a superpower that they didn’t have.”

In the years that followed Patrick’s death, legions of Irish monks chose to depart the great monasteries of Ireland to travel to Europe where they shared their faith and learning widely, ultimately laying the foundations from which modern Europe would emerge.

Patrick: A Slave to Ireland aired on RTÉ, and on BBC as Patrick: Born in Britain, Raised in Ireland, on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. The documentary aired on ARTE as Saint Patrick: Esclave et protecteur de l’Irlande on March 22, 2025. Watch the trailer here.