Fireworks and song mark St Patrick's Day
Fireworks and traditional sessions will fill the Dublin air this weekend as a giant parade and street entertainment are held to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.
In the first of the events tonight 2,000 student singers and 500 drummers will put on a dazzling display on the banks of the River Liffey as darkness falls.
More than 3,000 tonnes of fireworks are set to explode in an array of colour over the River Liffey tomorrow.
And on Sunday - St Patrick’s Day itself - more than half a million people are expected to take to the streets of the capital to watch the annual national parade.
Throughout Dublin funfairs and street entertainment have been set up while brewing giant Guinness was gearing up for one of the busiest weekends on the calendar.
And, during the long Bank Holiday weekend, musicians will entertain people from within eight temporary bandstands set up in the busiest parts of the city.
The 2.5 million euro parade is seen as essential in bringing a welcome boost for the tourism business, battered by last year’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and the September 11 terrorist attacks.
St Patrick’s Day celebrations last year had to be postponed until May because of foot-and-mouth.
A spokeswoman for the St Patrick’s Day Festival Committee said: ‘‘We are hoping for a great turnout this year.
‘‘Tonight there will be 2,000 students aged between 15 and 16 who will march from four different directions in the city and converge on the board walk of the Liffey.
‘‘They will be singing traditional Irish songs accompanied by 500 drummers, while a display of fireboats drifts along the river, illuminating the performance. It will be very stirring stuff.
‘‘Tomorrow there will be a huge fireworks celebration, set to music, which is being organised by Group F - the very people who set off the spectacular display from the Eiffel tower for the Millennium.
‘‘And on Sunday there will be a huge parade and we would expect more than 500,000 people to be on the streets of Dublin to celebrate.’’
‘‘There will be a fantastic array of colourful and creative pageants, marching bands, pomp, ceremony and celebration.’’
She added that Irish soccer manager Mick McCarthy would be the Grand Marshall of the national parade which starts at noon from St Patrick’s Cathedral and will be watched by millions worldwide.
Bank Holiday Monday’s major attraction will be the Big Day Out carnival in central Dublin’s Merrion Square, and there will be a treasure hunt in the city centre.
Celebrations are not only restricted to the capital, with Sunday parades organised in Galway, Navan, Limerick and Sligo.
Across the border in Belfast, four parades from the north, south, east and west of the city will be held around midday ending at the City Hall.
Visitors to Ireland from America were down between 30% and 50% on recent years, the Irish Hotels Federation said today.
The number of US bands travelling to the Dublin parade is also down to eight compared with 17 two years ago. However, hoteliers have been buoyed by strong domestic tourist numbers and more visitors from Britain, the federation said.
