What Saint Patrick's Day custom puts a shamrock into the bottom of a drink?

“Drowning the shamrock” is the Saint Patrick’s Day custom of placing a shamrock in the bottom of a drink.

Traditionally, a person wears or carries a shamrock during the celebrations and then places it in the final glass of the day. The drink may be whiskey, beer or cider, and the glass is raised as a toast to Saint Patrick, Ireland or the people present. The shamrock is then swallowed with the drink or removed and thrown over the shoulder for good luck.

The custom is also called “wetting the shamrock” and was historically associated with the end of Saint Patrick’s Day festivities. It is separate from the modern practice of wearing green, although both customs use the shamrock as a recognisable Irish symbol.

The plant’s wider symbolism is connected with the traditional story that Saint Patrick used its three leaves to explain the Christian Trinity. That story is not recorded in surviving writing until 1726, so the religious association developed long after Patrick’s lifetime. “Tossing,” “raising” and “blessing” the shamrock are not the conventional names for the drinking custom.