650,000 turn out for St Patrick's Day parade

Around 650,000 people today lined the streets of Dublin as one of the world’s biggest street parties paraded through the capital.

The heart of the city was transformed into a multicultural festival as more than 3,000 performers from all over the world took part in the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade.

Fire throwers, Samba dancers, the Sikh community and American marching bands joined local and national community groups and the traditional sounds of the Defence Forces bands.

Spectators perched on every spot possible, climbing on statues, window ledges, and on their own stepladders, to catch a glimpse of the parade as it passed over the 3km (1.9-mile) route, with youngsters squeezing their way through legs to the front of the barriers.

After a special mass in Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral President Mary McAleese, who delivered a reading during the service, joined Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other VIPs including film director Neil Jordan and the Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon for their seats across from the GPO.

Despite the first drops of rain falling just as Grand Marshal Micheal O’Muircheartaigh and his grandchildren led proceedings, the showers held off until the end.

Mythical beasts, legendary characters and underwater creatures were brought to life as colourful life-size puppets in spectacular style.

A gust of wind on O’Connell Bridge almost blew one stilt walker to the ground, but with the helping hands of nearby gardai the performing artist, dressed as a bird, soon caught up with her flock.

An impromptu foam party erupted on College Green where one reveller poured washing up liquid under a fountain.

City Fusion, a Dublin-based initiative which celebrates the vitality of the city’s many cultural groups, won the best pageant award with its gaggle of colourful birds, scenes of the city, and percussion orchestra.

Parades and events staged in cities and towns all over the country, including Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Belfast, with gardai reporting no major problems.

The shortest St Patrick’s Day parade in the world was also held today, which ran just 100 yards between two pubs in a tiny village of Dripsey, Co Cork.

Around 1,000 gardaí were in the capital ensuring the event ran as smoothly as possible, and could be seen taking alcohol from teenagers drinking in the street.

But the success of the day was counted by its attendance, which was up 250,000 on last year, when blustery winter conditions kept the crowds away.

“It’s been a fantastic day,” said festival spokeswoman Alison Kelly. “Everybody really enjoyed themselves.”

Bernadette McTiernan, from Felixstowe, Suffolk, in the UK, was in the capital with six of her friends to celebrate her 60th birthday.

“It was absolutely brilliant,” said Ms McTiernan, whose parents come from Dublin and whose husband is from Sligo.

“I come here all the time but I have never been to the parade before. I’ve never seen anything like it.

“I will definitely come back next year. We are just deciding if we’ll bring our husbands with us.”

Rick Hoger, from Montreal in Canada, used the national holiday as an excuse to take his first holiday to Ireland with his wife Nora, daughter Carla, sister Shirley and friends Daryl and Barbara Kari.

They guaranteed themselves one of the best views of the parade by getting there two hours before it started.

“So far this has been a wonderful trip, with a lot of Guinness,” he said.

“We celebrate St Patrick’s Day every year at home with an Irish friend with lots of singing and dancing.

“We started celebrating this year last night and haven’t stopped. We are expecting the same tonight.”

Dubliner Ann Murray from Tallaght said: “It was brilliant. It was lovely and colourful.”

Conor Curtis, seven, from Athy, Co Kildare, got a bird’s eye view of the event from his father’s shoulders.

“My favourite was the bands, and I liked all the costumes too,” he said.

As the final float of classic cars and motorbikes drove through, the clean-up operation began with gardai and security staff quickly dismantling security gates.

And despite thousands heading straight to bus and train stations to make their way home, the party and was set to continue late into the night and well into tomorrow when a firework display will light up the sky over Dublin’s Docklands.