February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — One of the warmest St. Patrick’s Days on record brought hundreds of thousands out to see festivities all over the country in what the government had decreed was the first millennium parts.
Warm temperatures and bright sunshine gave visiting tourists an uncharacteristic view of the national holiday with hardly a goose-pimple in sight.
The Dublin parade — now restyled as a type of Mardi Gras theater — was a riot of color as President Mary McAleese reviewed the 3,400 participants with Tourism Minister Jim McDaid and Lord Mayor Senator Joe Doyle.
Led by the world’s biggest drum — a 15-foot-wide, 2,000-pound weight behemoth that is a cross between a bodhran and a Lambeg — the participants took two hours to pass down the route lined by more than 500,000 people.
Marshall for the day was the doyen of the Dublin stage Maureen Potter.
Sign up to The Irish Echo Newsletter
Parades around the country had also smartened up their act and even the shortest — a 25-yard march from pub to pub in the North Cork village of Dripsey — had an extra panache this year.
Dripsey is bidding for a mention in the Guinness Book of records and managed to squeeze a pony, 200 people, local sports teams and several vintage cars into their parade
Dublin’s £1.2 million festivities had started with a bang five days earlier when Australian expert Syd Howard supervised what was claimed to be the largest fireworks display ever in Europe.
The spectacular 30-minute Skyfest from six tons of pyrotechnics exploding to choreographed music at the Customs House was the high point of the holiday.
The partying wrapped up after the parade when about 40,000 people who still had the stamina to see it through, stomped their way through the steps as a monster ceili in Stephen’s Green.
Dublin alone had more than 700 events this year and despite the theme of "Saints and Scholars" it was more like a Latin carnival than the traditional Irish St. Patrick’s showtime of industrial floats and the odd leprechaun.
The traditional early boost to the £2.3 billion tourism industry meant that hotels and guesthouses were packed and pubs and restaurants did a roaring trade.
The taoiseach and many of his ministers, who were globe-trotting to visit some of the estimated 70 million people worldwide claiming an Irish connection, missed out on some rare craic at home.
The organizers will have a hard time coming up with an encore for the real millennium parade next year.