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Lá Fhéile Pádraig!
Hello and welcome to our St Patrick’s Day liveblog. Over the next few hours we’ll keep you up to date with the parade in Dublin and events happening elsewhere.
Are you celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Ireland or abroad? Send your photos to pictures@thejournal.ie.
There’s a large crowd of people on O’Connell Street in Dublin city ahead of the country’s largest St Patrick’s Day parade. You can watch a livestream of the event on our Facebook page in the next few minutes.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterTaoiseach says he hopes the mayor of New York will visit Ireland soon pic.twitter.com/xVvnZcVCp8
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is in New York today, where he’ll take part in the St Patrick’s Day parade.
We’ll have updates from our reporter Christina Finn throughout the day.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterMayor de Blasio: 'If you took the Irish out of New York City there would be no New York City.'
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
The mayor of NYC commends Ireland for marriage quality and for having Leo Varadkar as leader pic.twitter.com/ogDElQpPfq
Cystic fibrosis campaigner Jillian McNulty is going to be the Grand Marshall at the Longford town parade.
jillian mc nulty / TwitterAnd I’m ready for the parade! Nervous but gonna enjoy every second! #grandmarshal pic.twitter.com/FOatwDQXLi
— Jillian McNulty (@jilli09) March 17, 2018
Have your parades started yet? Send your photos to pictures@thejournal.ie.
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill is in Ireland for St Patrick’s Day – he’ll be taking part in the Dublin parade – and by all accounts is having a very good time.
Junior Minister Pat Breen is in Coatbridge, near Glasgow in Scotland. Lots of balloons are also present.
You can watch our livestream of the Dublin parade on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/thejournal.ie/videos/1824104620943287/
Lisa Quinn is celebrating St Patrick’s Day at the Adelaide Oval stadium in Australia. Thanks for the photos, Lisa!
Send your photos to pictures@thejournal.ie.
People are enjoying themselves in Dublin city, where the parade is now under way.
Actor Mark Hamill is a special guest at the Dublin parade. Here he is meeting President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina.
Thanks to everyone who has been sending in photos. Here are Connor, Meghan and Kevin celebrating St Patrick’s Day in San Jose, California.
Send your photos to pictures@thejournal.ie.
Lots of buildings and structures are going green for the day that’s in it.
The Ball in Naas, Co Kildare, is among them.
A status orange snow-ice warning will be in place for Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wexford, Wicklow, Meath and Waterford from 3am until midday tomorrow.
A status yellow snow-ice is currently in place for the whole country. It’ll remain in effect until 9am on Monday.
Met Éireann has said it will be “very cold this weekend with wind chill and icy patches” and accumulations of snow in some areas.
Alone Ireland has reminded people to check in on their neighbours:
ALONE Ireland / TwitterHappy St Patrick's Day from all at ALONE! ☘️With a yellow weather warning currently in effect, make sure to stay safe and warm during today's festivities, and check in on your older neighbours. Keep our world-famous community spirit going!
— ALONE (@ALONE_IRELAND) March 17, 2018
Humans aren’t the only ones having a good time today.
The aptly-named Paddy the Friesian calf is getting in on the festivities with Seán McSweeney in Blarney, Co Cork.
Need some batons and general good times in your life? You can watch a livestream of the Dublin parade on our Facebook page.
Our reporter Christina Finn is in New York City, where Leo Varadkar will be marching in the world-famous parade.
The Taoiseach is attending mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral beforehand.
TheJournal Politics / TwitterTaoiseach attending mass at St Patrick's Cathedral before marching in the NY parade pic.twitter.com/c8SOVfI62l
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
TheJournal Politics / TwitterWe're here at Rockefeller Centre waiting on the Taoiseach who is attending #StPatricksDay mass at St Patrick's Cathedral pic.twitter.com/E05JEYTiVX
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
From New York to Greystones, the Taoiseach and ministers are attending parades to mark the occasion:
Leo Varadkar / TwitterThanks to @BilldeBlasio for a great #stpatricksday breakfast at his residence. Now attending the annual Mass in St Patrick’s Cathedral, NY NY. Next up: the parade! pic.twitter.com/mbUOE3CYZB
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 17, 2018
Leo Varadkar / TwitterThe Irish Naval Reserve are in New York too! #StPatricksDay pic.twitter.com/tQOTdfVrTN
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 17, 2018
Simon Harris TD / TwitterHappy St Patrick’s Day from Greystones where our brilliant parade has just finished! Well done to all the organisers. A great display of community groups, sports clubs, local business, music and dance pic.twitter.com/MVRB7gd30H
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) March 17, 2018
Health Minister Simon Harris decided not to travel to the Netherlands and Belgium as planned due to overcrowding issues and other difficulties facing the health service. Here’s where other ministers are celebrating today.
Live from New York … it’s the St Patrick’s Day parade:
TheJournal Politics / TwitterTaoiseach Leo Varadkar says he’s very proud to march in the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York pic.twitter.com/9iVepHqqrt
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
TheJournal Politics / Twitter#StPatricksDay kicking off here in NYC pic.twitter.com/DXGKLxnPsm
— TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) March 17, 2018
While Dublin’s parade is just after finishing, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is about to take part in the New York City parade…
Leo Varadkar / TwitterLined up and ready to go #StPatricksDay pic.twitter.com/jTVX4QTQp4
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 17, 2018
Leo Varadkar / TwitterThe New York #StPatricksDay parade is just about to start! Just bumped into grand marshal Loretta Brennan Glucksman again pic.twitter.com/jRbVk8hbF6
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 17, 2018
Just a quick reminder that the Six Nations clash between Ireland and England is a quarter way through and… it’s good news for Ireland.
Temple Bar is always a popular spot on St Patrick’s Day. You can watch our livestream of the area on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/thejournal.ie/videos/1824258857594530/?notif_id=1521290942944812¬if_t=live_video_explicit
The 588 Defence Forces personnel serving overseas are having their own St Patrick’s Day celebrations.
These pictures show troops serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), who were paid by a visit by Minister of State with responsibility for Defence Paul Kehoe.
Addressing the troops, he said:
“What you do here, day in and day out, culminates in the realisation of our words of commitment to peacekeeping, and also to progress in the region. Your work and your actions fill every Irish person with pride.”
The Knock Basilica in Co Mayo is among the Irish landmarks going green this weekend.
Check out this great shot by Maria Hunt:
The Cork city parade was a sea of colour. Thanks to Darragh Kane Photography for sending in these shots:
Around 300 landmarks in 50 countries are looking a little bit more Irish today.
Buildings are being lit up in green for St Patrick’s Day, all part of the Global Greening initiative from Tourism Ireland, now in its ninth year.
Here’s a selection of the greenery from across the world.
Some 4,000 participants took part in Limerick city’s parade.
Around 100 community groups and sports clubs brought the circus theme to life, along with some of Ireland’s best street theatre companies:
St Patrick himself made an appearance at the parade in Killarney in Co Kerry:
We’re going to wrap up the liveblog shortly but, before we go, here are some great shots of the Irish rugby team who are now Grand Slam Champions, after beating England 24-15 in Twickenham.
Not a bad way to spend St Patrick’s Day!
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I’d love to get his autograph on a letter of resignation.
@Cillian McCormick: Wouldn’t that be something especially accompanied by other resignation letters
There’s still time for a Christmas miracle.
Wonker
Let’s call a spade a spade, an awful lot more don’t like him.
Hardly surprising on the face of it as Fine Gael are a pro life party and Enda himself has stated his position on the matter clearly:
‘This is a Catholic country – there will be no abortion in this republic as long as I’m in office’.
@Alex Falcone: thankfully he will not always be in office.. As a matter of fact I would say his time in office is coming to an end sooner rather than later. Happy Xmas Alex, cal, noah, Isaac, eunuch Burke.
@Alex Falcone: can you direct me to where you found that “quote”? The only one I can find is this one, which pretty much contradicts yours completely…. “I am a Taoiseach who happens to be Catholic but not a Catholic Taoiseach” enda Kenny , when passing abortion legislation despite backlash from your Bishops.
@Dell: Seems like Alex has run away into his safe place.You will find that precious snowflakes like him will do that when they are found out with their BS.
@Alex Falcone: “‘This is a Catholic country – there will be no abortion in this republic as long as I’m in office’.”
A Catholic country that has gay marriage? Yeah you keep fooling yourself into thinking that :-)
@Clon Lad:
‘Precious snowflake’
Have you just suggested I’m a liberal?
Right, I’m contacting my solicitor immediately.
@Alex Falcone: you couldn’t reach the level of liberal on your mammy’s Shoulders . Ya know, the one you pretended to not be related to on the radio when you were both complaining about same sex marriage. So Alex _eunuch.. Show us where that “quote”‘ came from… . Or were you lying? That’s a sin you know ? A Big no no with the great big deity in the sky you believe in.
@Dell:
Have you missed an appointment with your psychiatrist lately?
Why redact the names and addresses of the senders? Why make the emails and letters anonymous?
@Micheal OLainn: why do you want to harass them?
@Micheal OLainn: Very simply Michael – the mails were a private communication between the sender and the recipient. This should always be respected no matter who the senders or recipients are.
No need to redact all the email addresses… some of them were clearly from mammykenny@gmail.com
Those autographs are probably for African gang members for forgeries. Kenny probably falls for it every time. Then some money goes missing from the state coffers, and its raise taxes again and hide the losses in the water debt fiasco.
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