George Patterson fronts The Roaring Forties, a band formed in 2003 for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. 

*It’s a typically seasonal forecast for St Patrick’s Day — cold weather with sunny spells and showers — but that won’t stop tens of thousands of people from taking to the streets for celebrations this weekend.

The organisers of Cork’s St Patrick’s Day parade say it will be the biggest in the city’s history and expect a three-day festival, organised around the national holiday, will attract 80,000 visitors.

There’s lots to admire in the latest batch of albums released by a number of Cork-based music acts, writes Nikki fFrench Davis