St Patrick’s Day celebrations are taking place across Ireland, with massive crowds on the streets of Dublin, after Covid-19 led to events being cancelled over the last two years.
Cities, towns and villages across the island are marking March 17th after the easing of coronavirus restrictions, with an estimated 400,000 having attended people the traditional parade in Dublin and many more watching it live on TV.
In March 2020, swathes of St Patrick’s Day plans were cancelled with the onset of the global pandemic, with parades axed in Dublin and Belfast.
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘connections’, in a nod to people connecting through arts and heritage.
This year, in Dublin, the parade began at Parnell Square and made its way through O’Connell Street and around College Green, before winding through Lord Edward Street and ending in Kevin Street at around 2pm.
Thousands descended onto the streets of the capital, with a sea of green blanketing the main thoroughfare of O’Connell Street.
The city was adorned with shamrock hats, leprechauns and long fake ginger beards.
Young children sat on parents’ shoulders to get the best view of the vast array of marching bands and dance and musical groups.
Members of Ireland’s Ukrainian community led the parade, with the Irish and Ukrainian flags held side by side in a sign of the country’s solidarity.
Olympic boxer Kellie Harrington and Paralympic swimmer Ellen Keane were the grand marshals.
The pair waved at the crowds who lined the streets of Dublin.
The Tokyo gold medal-winning boxer described the opportunity to parade through her local streets as “fantastic”.
“For myself and Ellen to be grand marshals, two female athletes, it’s amazing and it shows the strength in female sport, it’s always been there,” she told the PA news agency.
“To be chosen to walk through our city as grand marshals is fantastic. It’s great to show younger kids coming up that if they work hard they can achieve anything.
“I am not just representing myself, I’m representing the people of Ireland and the people of my community. It’s not every day that people from the inner city get to be a grand marshal and I’ve really got the backing of them all and they are all really delighted.
“I went to the parade in Dublin when I was a kid with my three brothers, and so many friends went as well.”
Hollywood actor John C Reilly was the international guest of honor at the Dublin parade.
The Irish/American star said it was a great opportunity to “spread joy” during a difficult time in the world.
Dressed in a green tweed suit from Dublin’s famed Louis Copeland & Sons store, Mr Reilly said he was excited to take part in the celebrations.