On the Town: Ice pirates, monster birds on stilts, singer Simon Casey and the Minister for Arts, John O'Donoghue, all rubbed shoulders at a party this week to announce details of the upcoming St Patrick's Festival.
The boy band Broken Hill, under the management of Keith Duffy, came too. J.B. Bishop (20), Enzo Forte (23), Marc Murray (22), Andy Kavanagh (21) and John Flanagan (20) are ready to rock on the 7Up Music Stage in Fitzwilliam Street over the holiday.
Some 650 Transition Year students, including an ice pirate in black, Aoife Jenkinson (15) from Coláiste Bríde, and an ice queen in white Melissa Gorman (16) from Loreto College on Crumlin Road, are going to take to the streets. Students from 12 Dublin schools, dressed as polar bears, ice queens and pirates, will leap and stomp through the city streets in this year's Dublin parade on March 17th.
Actor Bryan Murray will be there too urging Póga - the dragon he created with Kathleen Lambe - to display all his emotional wizardry. Watch out for the dragon's flashing tail, said Murray.
According to Dominic Campbell, the festival's artistic director, up to 3,500 people will be taking part in the parade this year, which will pass along O'Connell Street although viewing will be restricted there. The parade will "start at noon by St Patrick's Cathedral, with the tail end passing the Black Church by about 2.30 p.m," says Campbell.
Further entertainment is promised in the six days that lead up to the parade. The festival website is www.stpatricksfestival.ie; its office is at 01 6763205.