Shamrock shortage to hit delayed Patrick's Day festival

This year's re-scheduled St Patrick's Day festival is likely to suffer from a severe shortage of shamrock.

The festival, planned for Dublin from 18-20 May, is intended to re-launch the badly-hit tourism industry.

However, shamrock producers said that the shamrock harvested in March has since withered.

As the plant has to be sown many months beforehand, there was not enough time to regrow a fresh supply, they said.