The regionalisation debate and St Patrick's Day parades may appear to have little in common. Yet there are those who believe there are subtle and insidious links between the two. After all, why should Galway's Macnas perform in Dublin? Why should west Cork's Craic na Coillte and Limerick's Umbrella Theatre Group quit home and go to the capital?
If the annual celebration of the patron saint is another example of the capital versus the rest, and urban centres bleeding rural communities dry, Mayo's Kiltimagh aims to ensure that its festival should not be missed.
The Quaker String Band from Philadelphia is listed for the 12th successive year, and the Fanfarenzug Niederburg Konstanz, a flag-throwing and musical troupe from the Lake Constance area of south Germany, will also make a return visit.
Kiltimagh's celebrations kicked off at the weekend, with art and archery competitions, a pub tour, a quiz for the internationally intellectually challenged and, throughout, music. Floats entered by various clubs, businesses and schools aim to ensure it is the best and longest-lasting Paddy's party in the west.
Trying to rival it will be Galway, where a host of musicians will perform at sessions marking Seachtain na Gaeilge, and where Galway Arts Centre intends to make various community activities this year's focus. The initiative is part of the arts centre's continuing plan to reach into the community. It is modelled on last year's highly successful attempt to energise the city's parade.
Local organisations - ranging from national school pupils in the Claddagh to the Bishop's Field Travellers' Group, to Cerebral Palsy Ireland - have been busy making costumes and masks and rehearsing theatre techniques as part of an eight-week comprehensive programme. Galway Corporation is a key supporter again.
The arts centre runs a very busy spring programme of classes and workshops in creative writing, singing, textiles, art, drama, music and children's art and drama. Its administrator, Paul Fahy, is now heavily involved in preparing for the Cuirt International Festival of Literature (from April 19th to 25th). Seamus Heaney will launch his latest work at the festival. Dervla Murphy reads from her new South of Limpopo.
Celebrated writers - too many to list - from the United States, Malawi, Bosnia, Jamaica, Canada, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Wales are booked to participate, along with writers from home.
One of the highlights of Galway's continuously hectic arts calendar is this week's opening of the Druid Theatre Company's production of As You Like It, which has been billed as "Mad Max meeting Shakespeare". Directed by Maeliosa Stafford, who travelled from Australia for the job, previews are being held today, tomorrow and on Wednesday; the first official performance is on Thursday. To book, phone 091 568617.
Extempo is the name of a series of variety concerts which open in Galway's Town Hall Theatre tonight promising "extemporary" and "contemporary" flair. Proceeds of the first concert go to the Co Wicklow Glen of the Downs campaign.
Also in the Town Hall Theatre this week, Neum, Neum is a new pantomime in Irish to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge, which was written by Joe Steve O Neachtain and produced by the award-winning Plearaca Chonamara Company.
The St Patrick's Day 2 p.m. matinee costs only £2 and £3, and will be followed by the Gig Mor in the Town Hall that night. In the Kenny Gallery, "Impressions Expressions Digressions" is the title of an exhibition by Galway-based artist Miriam Silke.
Finally, Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, whose own affairs, some of the heart, have spawned many headlines, has thrown his weight behind Croi, the west of Ireland cardiology foundation. Actor Gabriel Byrne, the charity's "celebrity patron", has secured a signed limited edition audio-visual compact disc from Jagger, which will be auctioned for Croi at the annual gala ball this Friday in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel. Tickets for the event sold out in days.