The mayor of San Francisco Edwin Mah Lee served as grand marshal at the Cork St Patrick’s Day parade yesterday, making his first return visit to Leeside, having initially toured the city in 1969 as a high school student.

*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.