As millions of green-clad revelers raised their glasses across the globe to mark St Patrick’s Day yesterday, Ireland had high hopes that the festivities would bring a much-needed boost to the economy at home.
“It is probably one of the biggest global days around the world, when the Irish tribe showcases all things Irish,” Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said. “If you’re the president of any corporation and you were offered a chance where cities and world leaders stop and hold civic receptions and celebrate your product — you just wouldn’t be able to put a value on it. It’s priceless.”
Political and tourism chiefs see the weekend-long cultural festival as a chance to repair some of the damage the eurozone crisis has done to Ireland’s international reputation.
Photo: EPA
From Egypt’s pyramids to the Sydney Opera House, about 70 global landmarks will be bathed in green light in honor of Ireland’s national day — while in Dublin itself, more than half a million people were expected to line the streets for Sunday’s colorful annual parade.
With marching bands, dancing troupes and, of course, copious quantities of Guinness flowing, officials hope the crowds will spend heavily in Dublin’s pubs, shops, hotels and restaurants as they “paint the city green.”
Dublin’s Chamber of Commerce hopes the weekend will give city businesses a 50 million euro (US$65 million) boost.
Guinness is one company set to do well out of St Patrick’s Day — the Dublin-based brewer expects 13 million glasses of its stout, affectionately known as “the black stuff,” to be drunk across the world yesterday alone.
Famed for its double-digit growth in the 1990s, Ireland’s once-proud “Celtic Tiger” economy crashed in the late 2000s, when a property bubble burst.
The government was forced to seek an 85 billion euro bailout from the EU and IMF in 2010.
While Dublin appears to be pulling itself away from the brink of financial collapse, growth remains feeble — with the economy expanding just 0.2 percent in the last quarter.
“We’ve had a pretty terrible external reputation over the course of the last five years since the economic crash,” Dublin City University professor of government Gary Murphy said. “If Ireland prides itself as a good country to do business and visit, it’s important we sell ourselves as such to the world.”
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and 19 members of his Cabinet have traveled to 21 countries across the globe this weekend, selling “brand Ireland” in a series of trade, investment and tourism-focused meetings.
In New York, where an estimated 2 million people turned the city into the Big Green Apple with a massive parade on Saturday, Kenny urged the estimated 40 million Americans with Irish ancestry to return home for a visit.
“You’ll be spoiled for choice,” he told a breakfast with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
His invitation is part of a government-supported initiative called “The Gathering” aimed at encouraging the huge Irish diaspora, which is 60 million strong by some estimates, to come and connect with their roots — and spend some cash.
For the first time ever, visitors from abroad were invited to march in Sunday’s parade through Dublin, and almost 6,000 people from Mexico to Malaysia registered to take part.
Ireland has introduced a range of other measures to boost tourism, including cutting taxes on the hospitality sector and visa waivers for some countries outside the EU.
“St Patrick’s Day is an icon of Irishness the world over and from a business point of view, it’s hugely important to the tourism sector in Dublin and essentially kicks off the Irish tourism season,” Dublin Chamber of Commerce president Gina Quin said.
“We expect 800,000 people to be involved in the festivities in the city, with 120,000 of those fresh visitors coming from overseas,” she added.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image