A little emerald village under a tent, a fund-raising golf gala, marching bands from the four provinces of Ireland and, of course, if you could make it through the crowds, there was green Guinness in the London pubs.
The Irish community in Britain celebrated St Patrick's Day in style. The largest of the London celebrations was in the north-west of the city in Brent. Irish dancers from the Guilfoyle and Barry Diggins Irish dance schools took up the challenge to hold the crowds after the parade had made its way through the streets of Willesden.
The sunshine and warm weather guaranteed a good turnout, with hundreds of local schoolchildren, mothers and fathers cheering traditional Irish bands. Urging the Irish to wear the shamrock with pride, Enterprise Ireland organised a black-tie dinner in London, and guests at the Irish Club's St Patrick's Day banquet and ball earlier this week let their hair down during a champagne reception and music by a traditional Irish harpist. The Royal National Theatre and the Barbican Arts Centre adopted an Irish theme with celebrations of Irish music, art and literature this month.
The National's gala Craic Galore opens on Saturday and celebrates the festival of St Patrick with an unusual mix of fiddle music and poetry in the Terrace Cafe. The theatre will stage 13 performances of the Abbey Theatre's production of Dion Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn.
The Barbican opens its Irish celebrations later this month with a concert by Mary Coughlan, Mary Black and the traditional singing style of Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill. The Irish festival in Birmingham continues throughout the week. The city's parade last Sunday followed a Mass at St Catherine's Church, and revellers and Irish dancers crammed into a tented emerald village to hear traditional music.
Birmingham's Armagh and Leitrim associations each held St Patrick's Day dances, with music by the Oliver Plunkett Band, the Kiltubrid Pipe Band and the Arklow Marching Band. The celebrations continued in Newcastle, where the centrepiece was Limehouse Lizzy, a Thin Lizzy tribute band who performed at a St Patrick's Day party. Manchester is holding a weeklong festival. Its parade was led by a St Patrick figure waving to the crowds as the floats of the GAA, Irish dancing schools and the local Comhaltas passed through the streets.