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St. Patrick's Day Parade

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Kathy
Kathy
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Saint Patrick's Day Parade

  • March 23, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by rufusni from Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Saint Patrick's Day Parade

The Saint Patrick's parade on March 17 in Dublin, is one of the largest in the world, (the American's pip them to the post in size, however, they can't beat the real thing!). This is a great family day out, especially as it is free! Traffic grinds to a halt across the city as the city centre is shut down for several hours. The city is packed out with people on the route, if you want a good spot you would need to be at least an hour earlier than the start of the parade at noon. A common alternative of some of the locals is to bring stepladders and be heads above everyone else. The crowd can get at least 10 rows deep and even deeper in places - and being at the back of it reduces your view dramatically.

Many of the shops in the city centre are closed during the morning, then opening in the afternoon, but there are lots of stalls selling green 'tat' to wear and flags and the usual small corner shops to buy snacks. However, most restaurants and cafes are open for lunch, and of course the pubs!

It takes quite a long time for the parade to make its way along the route from Parnell Square to St Patrick's cathedral, so be prepared to wait. The atmosphere is great, introduce yourselves to some of the people around you, people tend to be in a great mood. There was a group of Italians in front of me, one, via signing managed to get a date with a girl on the third floor of an office building opposite. I have to say my feet got sore standing in one place so long, as there wasn't any room to move at all.

The parade starts with some of the bands of Irish army, police and so on, and then the carriage with the mayor in it. Then there was a mix of mainly American marching bands and various Irish creative groups with floats and costumes. Some of the groups had very intriguing themes to their displays, for example in 2008 the overall theme was Energy - all performing arts groups were all colourful and entertaining with floats, music and performers - but I'm not sure how one of the groups who had a flock of different insects and flowers fitted the theme. There were allsorts of performers from dancers, flag-wavers, fire-breathing and drummers, so there was quite a variety, and it doesn't get boring. Of course there needed to be a St Patrick float- which was a little freaky looking and certainly not a traditional view, as Patrick looked a bit scary, but very cool on his motorbike. It can take about two hours for the entire parade to pass by from start to finish.

There is a great buzz to the whole day in the city centre, with a funfair and various other events happening the rest of the day. Its well worth the visit! Details of all the official events, including details of the parade route can be found on the festival's website at www.stpatricksday.ie. Some of the events connected with the festival sometimes need free tickets which can be obtained via the website.

This was my first attempt at the Dublin St Patrick's Day parade, I used to avoid the equivalent in Belfast which was a little too political in nature, but I have been at the one in Downpatrick, which is were St Patrick is supposedly buried- which is smaller. I have to say I really enjoyed the couple of hours I spent in the city centre, I did make the mistake of not wearing warm enough clothes and so I was glad to get inside having stood out for three hours. But its definitely a fun time in Dublin for St Patrick's Day, and I would recommend it to anyone!

From journal Dublin Delights

Editor Pick

St. Patrick's Day Parade

  • February 9, 2001
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Kathy from Northern Va Suburbs of DC, Virginia
St. Patrick's Day Parade

I have been to St. Patricks Day in Cleveland and Chicago but this was really great. We got there early and got a spot where we could see. Now the problem is waiting and the fact that kids and families came later and the mothers gave us the old sob story about letting the kids in from so they could see. "Hey I got here an hour early so I could get a good view." Oh Well it was still a lot of fun. There were quite a few marching bands from the USA.

Since it was 2000, and St. Pat's fell on a Friday this was a whole weekend event with Fireworks over the River Liffey Sunday night. This was the best St. Patricks Day ever and I have no idea what I am going to do this year.

From journal St.Patrick's Day in Dublin

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