Irish take to streets to celebrate St Patrick's Day

More than a million people were today taking to the streets of Dublin and London to celebrate St Patrick’s Day.

In Dublin, mirroring celebrations worldwide, more than 2,000 people will dance and march along the route in a glittering array of colour.

But the celebrations there were marred by the death of a youngster who drowned while trying to swim across the River Liffey following a huge fireworks display.

Police divers and a helicopter joined the operation to search for the youth, believed to be in his late teens. His body was later recovered late last night.

Despite the tragedy Dublin’s celebrations were continuing today with a 2.5 million-euro parade.

The Festival Committee said bands would lead the parade followed by marchers in a colourful procession, beginning at St Patrick’s Cathedral.

Meanwhile, across the Irish Sea, a parade was beginning at London’s Westminster Cathedral and coming to a climax at Trafalgar Square.

The parade - the idea of London Mayor Ken Livingstone - was being held with the support of Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who will address the crowds via a video link.

The parades come as the climax to St Patrick’s Day which has been celebrated throughout the weekend.

Last night thousands of Dubliners and tourists from across the globe watched on as tonnes of fireworks exploded over the Irish capital.

The banks of the Liffey were crammed with onlookers as the sky was lit up over the Custom House Docks by the glittering display set to music.

Throughout the day around a million locals and tourists enjoyed a street carnival. Street entertainers and bands - including eight from America - played on as people enjoyed a funfair.

And pubs across Dublin were brimming with people as Guinness supplies were rapidly drained.

Irish soccer manager Mick McCarthy will be the grand marshal of today’s Irish national parade which starts at noon and will also be watched by millions on television and the Internet worldwide.

Celebrations were not only restricted to the capital, with parades going ahead in Galway, Navan, Limerick and Sligo.

Over the border in Belfast, four parades from the north, south, east and west of the city were being held around midday ending at the City Hall.

But as the marchers went ahead a post-mortem examination was being carried out on the youth who died trying to swim the river.

A police spokesman said: ‘‘It seems that the two got into the river as a dare. One of them made it across and the other did not.’’

Yesterday, New York celebrated St Patrick’s Day with hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets for a parade.

A two minute silence was held in memory of those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Many of the emergency workers who died in the twin towers were from the Irish-American community.