Smiles around the world for Patrick’s Day
Eight out of 10 people in the United States, Australia, Germany, Britain and Ireland believe the Irish holiday is one of the friendliest days of the year, according to the Guinness-commissioned survey.
The day seems to bring out the best in us, with one in five saying it is the one day of the year when they can look forward to being greeted with a smile.
According to Ireland’s Census Bureau, there are more than 80 million Irish men and women throughout the world, yet only 4.2m live in Ireland.
Guinness estimates that at least 10m glasses of its stout, available in more than 150 countries, will be drunk today.
A survey of Irish-American attitudes found that the day is not all about parades and drinking beer, with 25% intending to go to Mass.
The Amárach Research/Irishcentral.com survey of more than 1,000 people found that 90% of Irish-Americans will celebrate the day. Almost half will do so with friends and family, with 70% enjoying a special dinner together. Two out of five will celebrate with drinks in an Irish pub and 43% will attend a parade in their local town or city.
In addition, the physical ties to Ireland remain strong, with seven out of 10 having visited the country.
One in five plan to visit Ireland this year and almost two thirds hope to make the trip next year. Of those travelling to Ireland this year, 65% will visit Dublin, 55% Galway, 44% Cork and 31% Donegal.
One in three believe that Riverdance is the most symbolic of modern Ireland and actor Liam Neeson is the person that Irish-Americans are most proud of.
Meanwhile, another survey suggests that almost half of Irish people are fluent in Irish, with young adults having the greatest command of their native language.
According to a survey conducted by travel and leisure website, lastminute.com, 47% said they could speak Irish fluently, while 75% said they spoke the language at some point last year.
Younger people appear to have the greatest command of the language with 56% of 18 to 25-year-olds stating they could speak it fluently.
A little less than 20% of the 1,000 people surveyed could not remember when they last spoke Irish and 5% admitted they last spoke it for their Leaving Certificate.
Meanwhile, Dublin Chamber believes that €18m will be spent by out-of-state sports tourists coming to the city this weekend for the final Six Nations clash between Ireland and England in the Aviva Stadium.
It is expected that many fans without tickets will come just to experience the atmosphere.
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