St. Patrick’s Day around the world
From Dublin to Montreal to Buenos Aires, eight great cities where you can shake your shamrock on March 17th
Spring break is one kind of vacation. St. Patrick’s Day is quite another. There’s a camaraderie, a celebration of common cause, a standing reason almost anywhere in the world to turn to the complete stranger on your left and say slainte with a big conversation-inviting grin on your face. Unless you’re college-age and in certain parts of Florida, that’s just not the case with spring break.
There’s an Irish pub in just about every city of more than 100,000 in the western world (and every city of more than one million in the eastern world), and every one of them will be a happy place to be on this 1,519th anniversary of the not especially bibulous saint’s being summoned to his reward. But these are the top bets for the most populated or otherwise entertaining celebrations to be had around the planet this March 17.
DUBLIN
Ground zero, you might say, for such things. The really big celebrations are relatively recent, and are still more focused on tourists than locals. But that’s okay, because you’re a tourist. And with Ireland being so wee, a trip over for St. Paddy’s Day is a great excuse to ramble to other Irish spots, like Downpatrick, where the man’s buried, or Inishmore, the island off Galway that’s like a pint of Irish distilled into a shot glass.
CHICAGO
They turn the Chicago River green. That’s just something you’re going to want to see at least once, preferably with Guinness goggles firmly in place. And since St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Saturday this year, the parade — and the dyeing — takes place on the day itself. Great pubs abound if you’re not into coloured rivers.
NIAGARA FALLS
They won’t be dyed, but they will be green, thanks to the first-ever illumination of both the Canadian and American sides of the falls. As ever, the Canadian side will be better, the fresher Canadian water able to reflect a deeper, truer shade of Irish green.
If you feel like spending the day more the way Patrick himself probably would, you could always stop in at the lovely St. Patrick’s Catholic church at the corner of Queen St. and Victoria Ave.
I’ve heard New York described as the world’s biggest Irish city. It’s not, unless you count people whose great-grandmothers were named Kathleen. But it is a fine place to spend March17. The famous parade starts at 11 a.m. at 44th St. and Fifth Ave. and 200,000 marchers pass two million spectators as it goes up Fifth. When that’s over, you can stop into one of the uncountable number of Irish pubs, and then head downtown, grimace, smash a bottle and pretend you’re Daniel Day-lewis. As you flee the scene, remember to look up: the Empire State Building will be bathed in green.
If you prefer your beer served warm, you may want to look into the possibility of celebrating the day in the Australian capital, which boasts the biggest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Southern Hemisphere (where March is still sum- mery). This year marks the city’s 202nd anniversary of marking the day, with the festivities focused on Sunday, March 18. They include a parade, a family day at Hyde Park, and an annual citizenship ceremony at the park that highlights the close ties between Australia and Ireland. After the initial waves of Englishspeaking 19th-century immigration subsided, there was a clear divide between the nation’s two biggest cities: Toronto was Scottish, Montreal was Irish. Though much has changed in la belle province, those Irish roots remain, with a reported 5.5 per cent of Québécois claiming Irish heritage. Most of those are in Montreal, and they’ve got the pubs to prove it. That, and a celebration that dates back to 1759 (and a parade that’s lasted since1824, making it the world’s second oldest, after New York). This year’s parade is on Sunday, March 18. This northern English city’s got a legitimate claim to being one of the world’s biggest Irish cities. It’s been one of the main landing zones for an unbroken string of Irish migrants from the famine to the current economic crisis. The neighbourhood of Digbeth is the traditional Irish quarter but it’s fair to say the Irish have seeped into almost every aspect of Birmingham life. And this time of year, they take it seriously. Their parade starts at noon on Sunday, March 11, and is the centrepiece of a week-long festival. The Argentine capital throws an all-night blow out on Reconquista St. that spills out into the rest of the Retiro district. It’s a tourist attraction, sure, but Argentina is actually home to a large chunk of the Irish diaspora. More than 20,000 emigrated here in the 19th century. In case you haven’t noticed, St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, falls on a Saturday this year. To commemorate the big day, we’re asking Star Travel readers to send us their favourite photos from a previous St. Patrick’s Day, or their favourite photo of Ireland. Please send a high-resolution jpeg to travel@thestar.ca and please type the words “St. Patrick’s Day” into the subject line of the email so we can easily identify the photos. Also, please provide your full name and address and give us 60-80 words on why you chose to send your particular picture. If we choose to run your photo in the paper on March 17, we’ll mail you $50 — enough to buy a few beverages for next St. Patrick’s Day.