The New York St Patrick’s Day parade was a triumph for the organisers.

WHO ya gonna call? Enda-Buster! Riverdance famously makes our Taoiseach cry, so it was fittingly patriotic of him to give us all a good St Paddy’s weekend laugh with his bizarre transatlantic trilling of Carly Rae Jepsen’s song ‘Here’s My Number, Call Me Maybe.’

ÁRAS an Uachtaráin last night refused to confirm or deny claims President Mary McAleese turned down the role of grand marshal of the New York St Patrick’s Day parade because the event excludes gay people.