Taoiseach: Gathering for St Patrick's Day will 'undermine all of the sacrifices'

In a statement to the nation, Micheál Martin said that St Patrick’s Day is "a special occasion for every Irish person around the world", but this year's would be "poignant" due to the loss of 6,500 lives on the island.

The Taoiseach has urged the public to honour those who have died in the last 12 months by not gathering to celebrate St Patrick's Day. 

In a statement to the nation, Micheál Martin said that St Patrick’s Day is "a special occasion for every Irish person around the world", but this year's would be poignant due to the loss of 6,500 lives on the island.

He said it is imperative that people do not meet tomorrow to celebrate the day as to do so would set back the work done in the third national lockdown.

"We normally spend this day with our extended family and friends going to parades or to sporting events. Unfortunately, we cannot do this tomorrow," he said.

"The enormous effort that the entire country has put in to drive down the rate of infection is working. We have successfully reduced the pressure on our health service, and we are moving in the right direction, but we are at a crossroads.

"The variant that is now dominant in the country is much more contagious and therefore much more dangerous. We must keep it under control and I am hopeful that everyone will make a special effort to mark the day in a Covid safe manner. 

"It is very important that people do not congregate or meet up for social gatherings in their homes or anywhere else. To do so would be to undermine all of the sacrifices we have made to date."

Mr Martin said that St Patrick's Day will "come again" and the "best way to honour" those who have passed will be to stay home this year.

Earlier today, junior minister Patrick O'Donovan urged people to "drown the shamrock” with water and not alcohol, saying that the uncontrolled sale of alcohol had been a mistake.

"I think 12 months on from the pubs being closed we saw what happened with the uncontrolled sale of alcohol - pictures from Limerick two weeks ago, that's not the only place we saw, funerals all over the place just let go totally unregulated - we saw people that died as a result of attendance at funerals.

"In counties up and down the country, there have been some scandalous scenes. I hope that I'm not on your show next week saying look at what happened on St Patrick's Day.

“It's a minority that's doing this.

“More and more people are getting the message that clowning around has done an awful lot of damage, unfortunately, what we saw in the run-up to Christmas - it was the gatherings around funerals that did a huge amount of damage, then we had the sheebeens - guards had to go out, endangering themselves and their families, to deal with these yahoos."