St Patrick’s Day celebrations are taking place across Ireland, with massive crowds on the streets of Dublin, after Covid-19 led to events being cancelled over the last two years.
Cities, towns and villages across the island are marking March 17th after the easing of coronavirus restrictions, with an estimated 400,000 having attended people the traditional parade in Dublin and many more watching it live on TV.
In March 2020, swathes of St Patrick’s Day plans were cancelled with the onset of the global pandemic, with parades axed in Dublin and Belfast.
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘connections’, in a nod to people connecting through arts and heritage.
This year, in Dublin, the parade began at Parnell Square and made its way through O’Connell Street and around College Green, before winding through Lord Edward Street and ending in Kevin Street at around 2pm.
Thousands descended onto the streets of the capital, with a sea of green blanketing the main thoroughfare of O’Connell Street.
The city was adorned with shamrock hats, leprechauns and long fake ginger beards.
Young children sat on parents’ shoulders to get the best view of the vast array of marching bands and dance and musical groups.
Members of Ireland’s Ukrainian community led the parade, with the Irish and Ukrainian flags held side by side in a sign of the country’s solidarity.
Olympic boxer Kellie Harrington and Paralympic swimmer Ellen Keane were the grand marshals.
The pair waved at the crowds who lined the streets of Dublin.
The Tokyo gold medal-winning boxer described the opportunity to parade through her local streets as “fantastic”.
“For myself and Ellen to be grand marshals, two female athletes, it’s amazing and it shows the strength in female sport, it’s always been there,” she told the PA news agency.
“To be chosen to walk through our city as grand marshals is fantastic. It’s great to show younger kids coming up that if they work hard they can achieve anything.
“I am not just representing myself, I’m representing the people of Ireland and the people of my community. It’s not every day that people from the inner city get to be a grand marshal and I’ve really got the backing of them all and they are all really delighted.
“I went to the parade in Dublin when I was a kid with my three brothers, and so many friends went as well.”
Hollywood actor John C Reilly was the international guest of honour at the Dublin parade.
The Irish/American star said it was a great opportunity to “spread joy” during a difficult time in the world.
Dressed in a green tweed suit from Dublin’s famed Louis Copeland & Sons store, Mr Reilly said he was excited to take part in the celebrations.
Emotional
Anna McGowan, interim director at the St Patrick’s Festival, said it was emotional to see the return of the parade.
She said: “It’s been three calendar years since the last parade and there’s so many people whose lives are about putting on a show, and to be able to do that this year, and to welcome people back on to the streets of Dublin for our national days, it is so emotional and so important.
“I’m thrilled to be back.
“This parade will be bigger and brighter than ever before. We’ve been able to double the creative content in the parade.
“We’re also just thrilled to be able to welcome back our international marching bands to Dublin, so that’s going to be fantastic.
“The theme this year is connections. It’s all about inviting people to reconnect with each other after a really tough two years that we’ve had.
“We want people to come back into the streets of Dublin, into your towns and connect with each other. We enjoy those moments together and come back together.
“We will also have an opening moment to show Ireland’s solidarity with Ukraine. Irish people have a strong sense of support and we want to show that part of Irish people.”
In Cork, crowds gathered on the streets of Cork city from as early as 11am, The Echo reports.
Organised by Cork City Council, the theme of this year’s parade was Heroes – Ordinary people in Extraordinary times.
Over 2,500 local community participants will be involved in the parade, plus commissioned pieces and visiting groups from the United States - including Massachusetts State Troopers, Philadelphia Irish Trad Tours and the Bixby Ruby group from Oklahoma.
In Laois, the main street of Portlaoise will be "party central" with events for all ages on Thursday, March 17th, and Friday, March 18th, the Laois Nationalist reports.
Rain failed to dampen spirits in Belfast as the St Patrick’s Day parade returned to the city.
Hundreds of people had gathered in sunshine at City Hall ahead of the event but just minutes before Lord Mayor Kate Nicholl led off the parade the rain started to fall.
However, the mood remained upbeat as onlookers cheered and clapped amid a carnival atmosphere.
Parades also returned in several towns and cities across Northern Ireland, from Armagh and Downpatrick to Derry.
