RUSSIANS LIKE the Irish rebel spirit, but they showed some of their own in defying the Moscow city authorities who had banned an alternative St Patrick’s Day parade. About 2,000 people turned the city’s main pedestrianised street, Stary Arbat, green for the event yesterday.
A motley crowd wearing everything from kilts to paramilitary and druidic uniforms, with some in home-made Tricolour skirts, swirled around the streets dancing to Irish music, ballads and rebel songs, with downtown Moscow more like Mullingar in the middle of a fleadh cheoil.
“Ireland is free and independent, a country with spirit and a culture we love and admire in music, dance and literature,” said Maria Boldyreva from Moscow, her Tricolour-painted face untroubled by Ireland’s woes.
“We want to touch this tradition, which is why we are here today. The Russians and the Irish are brothers and sisters.”
The official parade, running since 1992 under the patronage of recently sacked mayor Yuri Luzhkov and organised by Moscow’s Irish Business Club, was cancelled this year – a decision ultimately taken by the Irish organisers themselves, it has emerged – because of safety fears and failure to reach agreement with city authorities over a suitable street.
An explanation by the Irish Embassy that the cancellation was “in view of the cold weather and the priority that is being given at present to resolving Moscow’s traffic problems”, under new mayor Sergey Sobyanin, was greeted with dismay by local Irish culture enthusiasts, who decided to organise their own instead.
Almost 5,000 Russians pledged support in an online petition.
“There had been an alternative one running for the past three years, as the official parade had become geared more towards commercial interests and less about culture,” said Ivan Dontsov, director of cultural foundation Veresk, which runs Irish music and cultural events in the city.
“We sought formal permission this year, but the city authorities told us only on Thursday that it was banned, as we needed 30 days to apply for something which they said was a ‘cultural display’.
“But they’ve told us they’d help us next year, so let’s hope so.”
Those who defied the ban risked arrest, but it did not stop a crowd from turning up, watched by seemingly disinterested police.
With a few phrases of excellent Irish, Oleg Zotov said: “I am sorry my Irish is so bad, but I have much better Old Irish, which I studied for five years at Trinity College Dublin.” Nearby, Polina Schetinina twirled elegantly in her full-length Irish Tricolour dress. “It took me several nights to make it myself in time for today.”
She had come to Irish culture through Irish dancing, one of thousands who are involved in numerous Russian-run Irish dance schools across the city, sparked in part by Riverdance.
The Irish Embassy’s celebrations yesterday were rather more formal, with a gala concert headlined by pianist Miceál O’Rourke and Irish traditional performers.
The intensity of the Muscovites’ celebrations would suggest quite a few will be experiencing a genuine Irish morning-after-St Patrick’s Day feeling known to those who overdrown the Shamrock.