It's a green party that tops the poll as half a million descend on capital
Ireland and much of the world turned green yesterday in celebration of the country’s patron saint, with half a million people thronging the streets of Dublin alone for this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade.
The festivities in the capital kicked off at Parnell Square at noon as 12 large floats and over 3,000 participants made their way down O’Connell Street, over the Liffey and through the south side of the city, ending at Kevin Street.
Performers in the parade included Macnas, Bui Bolg, Spraoi, the Inishowen Carnival Group, and The Outing Queer Arts Collective, while TV presenter and podcaster Vogue Williams led the procession as Grand Marshal.
Ireland goes green for St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Pic: Tom Honan, Dublin.
The theme of the Dublin parade was celebrating ‘Roots’ and featured marching bands from Scotland and the US – coming all the way from Ohio, Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, Indiana, and Texas.
Children and visitors queued for hours to get the best viewing spots along the parade route, many wearing Tricolour glasses, leprechaun hats, decorative green face glitter, and clusters of shamrocks.
Dubliner Rian Doyle, 11, was with his sister Kelly, nine, and said that being Irish was about celebrating Irish achievements. They have been to the Dublin parade for the last few years, and the young boy said he likes the fun of the singing, dancing, and marching.
Ireland goes green for St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Pic: Tom Honan, Dublin.
Rian said: ‘It’s a religious tradition, but also to celebrate Ireland and all we’ve done over the years.’
Karal and Karen Van Brakel, from the Netherlands, said they had planned to be in Dublin for a holiday and did not realise it was St Patrick’s Day. They said that the Irish people’s reputation across the world was the reason St Patrick’s Day was so popular in so many countries.
Ms Van Brakel said: ‘It’s because they believe in something, in happiness, and also to connect each other. It doesn’t matter where you come from.’
Vogue William was the grand marshal at the St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Pic: Tom Honan, Dublin.
Before the parade, Ms Williams, 40, said she had been too excited to sleep the previous night because of the honour that had been bestowed upon her as Grand Marshal. Asked why she was proud to be Irish, she said: ‘I just think we’re deadly. We just are, and we annoyingly gravitate towards each other as well.
‘Even in London, I’ve got my group of Irish friends; you go away, you’re looking for an Irish bar. We all just love hanging out with each other, and I just think you meet an Irish person and you’re bound to have a good night.’
Ms Williams said she is ‘back in her parade era’ and that the parade would show visitors ‘a really good time’.
Ireland goes green for St Patrick’s Day in Dublin. Pic: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
When told the Dublin mayor, Ray McAdam, was keen to meet her, she said: ‘Oh, fantastic, maybe he’ll let me wear his necklace.’
There was a mild and sunny start to the afternoon as parades were underway in Belfast, Galway, Cork, Limerick, and countless small towns across Ireland, while in Jessie Buckley’s native Killarney, her recent Oscar win was celebrated with a float dedicated to successful people from the Kerry town.
In Limerick, 70,000 revellers lined the streets as 60 different floats and groups from all over the world participated in the ‘Legends of Limerick’-themed parade, celebrating local heroes, achievers and inspirational community volunteers.
The parade’s Grand Marshal, Irish national women’s marathon champion Ava Crean, kept the festivities moving fast while Limerick’s last surviving fife band – St Mary’s Fife and Drum Band, formed 141 years ago – whistled traditional tunes, as knights from King John’s Castle clashed swords for the crowds.
High-flying performers from Fidget Feet wowed with aerial acrobatic artistry, and the National Clown Orchestra of Ireland raised many laughs with some bum notes.
A 10km race kicked off Belfast’s parade this year with thousands of runners in colourful costumes, while a céilí and food village was held outside St Anne’s Cathedral. Local dance troupes, stilt-walkers, schools, community groups, musicians and even a pyramid of fake sheep in gymnastic poses were led by Lord Mayor Tracy Kelley from Belfast City Hall.
It wouldn’t be St Patrick’s Day without the man himself, and one county managed to bag a well-known figure spotted recently around Dublin’s Temple Bar. A 14ft-tall figure with a snake, a staff, and a Guinness was installed and quickly removed from the façade of the Temple Bar late last month, but made a reappearance at parades in Maynooth and Celbridge in Co. Kildare yesterday.
The artist had said three weeks ago that modifications would be made to remove the pint of Guinness and that the statue would be back in action. Photos from the Co. Kildare events show that St Patrick now has a large pot of shamrocks.
Galway’s parade kicked off from the University of Galway with an estimated 3,000 participants before making its way through Eyre Square, which hosted free entertainment and concerts over the previous three days.
The city’s Claddagh Basin was also host to the Bádóirí an Chladaigh event yesterday, in which music, poetry, and Galway Hookers in full sail were on display.
An estimated 60,000 people turned up for Cork’s parade, led by Grand Marshals from the national charity Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, which is based just outside the city. Like Dublin, Cork also showcased some visiting American marching bands but also featured an international collection of samba groups from the UK, France, and Austria.
Meanwhile, a small village in Co. Leitrim made history as it hosted the first parade of the day. Kinlough, a village of just over 1,200 people, came alive with vintage tractors, floats, and music at the stroke of midnight on Monday night so it could host Ireland’s earliest event on St Patrick’s Day.
It was also the first year the village held its own parade. The town with one of the longest traditions of hosting a parade on March 17, Wexford, saw 15,000 gather for festivities with floats from the local Light Opera Society carrying the cast and crew of their upcoming performances of Jesus Christ Superstar.
The RNLI, the Civil Defence, the Order of Malta, Wexford MarineWatch, and the Irish Coast Guard also had a notable presence at the event, first held in 1904.
Nearby Waterford is believed to pip Wexford for the title of longest-running St Patrick’s Day parade in Ireland by just one year, but attracted fewer people this year for its theme ‘St Patrick’s Day: where it all began’.
As far afield as the East African nations of Uganda and Rwanda, fiddles flew and feet stamped as part of lively St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
A week-long programme of festivities in the Ugandan capital, Kampalaz, saw Donegal traditional band 9 Hazel Trees team up with world-renowned professional Irish dancers Jean Kennedy and Alasdair Spencer at the annual Irish Ball, where almost 400 revellers partied late into the night.
Meanwhile, Irish Ambassador to Uganda Mags Gaynor was joined in Kigali, Rwanda, by over 200 Irish people for an evening of music
Extra reporting by Gráinne Ní Aodha and David Raleigh
