All the world from the Sydney Opera House to the Empire State Building turned Irish for the day, as revelers marked St Patrick’s Day with bagpipes, dancing, emerald lights and green body paint in a flurry of celebration.
New Yorkers and visitors from all over the globe lined Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue a dozen deep as a quarter-million marchers took part in the world’s oldest and largest St Patrick’s Day parade on Wednesday, as crowds gathered along sun-warmed routes in Dublin and cities around the US to mark the holiday.
It was expected to be a mix of lighthearted cheer and serious politics at the White House, where US President Barack Obama was meeting with Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.
Obama said that 36 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, adding, “I’m sure more do on St Patrick’s Day.”
“And it’s a testament I think to how close our two countries are that America has been shaped culturally, politically, economically by the incredible contributions of Irish Americans,” Obama said.
More than a half-million people lined the 3km route of the flagship Dublin parade beneath unusually sunny skies in this wet, windy land. The parade’s theme, “The Extraordinary World,” celebrated Ireland’s increasing multiculturalism as well as the global spread of the Irish.
Mixed in with the usual displays of marching bands and Irish sporting heroes were dancing troupes from Africa and India, bands from Austria and France, giant insect floats from Spain, and Dubliners dancing with mops and dusters.
This year Ireland is pushing itself especially hard as a tourist destination as the country faces its worst recession since the Great Depression, with double-digit unemployment and net emigration for the first time in 15 years.
As part of a marketing deal by Ireland’s tourism agency, major world landmarks -— including the Sydney Opera House, the London Eye, Toronto’s CN Tower and New York’s Empire State Building --— were bathed in green lights.
Virtually the entire Irish government left the country this week to greet foreign leaders and corporate kingpins in 23 countries, particularly in the US, in hopes of rekindling the investment wave that fueled Ireland’s boom from 1994 to 2007.
St Patrick’s Day is Ireland’s first major tourist event of the year, packing hotels and pubs with visitors seeking an all-night party. Ireland’s weeklong festival gets bigger each year, with more than 100 parades on Wednesday in cities, towns and villages across the island of 6 million.
The embrace of Irish heritage and culture in New York City includes bands, bagpipes and grand marshal Ray Kelly, the city’s police commissioner.
The 249th St Patrick’s extravaganza will be the last of New York City’s world-famous parades before new restrictions go into effect on April 1 requiring all parades to be shorter to save money.
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