Mick will marshal his forces for Ireland and St Patrick

MickMcCarthy will lead the Republic of Ireland to win the World Cup at least once this year, if only in a pageant.

The manager of the Irish soccer team is Grand Marshal for this weekend's St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, and will be immediately followed in the procession by a piece of street theatre in which the boys in green cause a major upset in Yokohama. The pageant, by the South West Inner City Community Network, is inspired by the 2002 parade theme, "Dream". But in a gesture to reality, it will also be accompanied by the mayor of Chiba City, the Irish team's base for the second and third group-stage games, who may have the task of bidding them a safe journey home following an embarrassing defeat to Saudi Arabia on June 11th.

The St Patrick's Festival in Dublin reverts to March this year after the postponement forced by last year's foot-and-mouth crisis.

The parade on Sunday will be the now-familiar mixture of tradition and modernity. The Lord Mayor will as usual leave the Mansion House in the Irish State coach, pulled by four white draught horses, for the reviewing stand in O'Connell Street. But the parade will continue the new look of recent years, with floats replaced by 10 specially commissioned pageants involving between 100 and 300 performers each. Nineteen marching bands will take part, from countries which will include the UK, the US, Norway and Germany.

Earlier in the weekend, the "AIB Glimmering" on Friday night comprises four separate parades involving drummers and other performers converging at the river Liffey, where a mass of "fireboats" will be set alight.

Regular events include Saturday's "Big Day Out", six hours of family entertainment which will take up three sides of Merrion Square, and the "Skyfest" at the Liffey quays. Some 500,000 are expected to attend the Saturday night event, with the fireworks display designed this year by Groupe F, the team behind the millennium celebrations at the Eiffel Tower.

St Patrick's Day parades will take place in towns and cities throughout the country.